Non-adherence to Disease-Modifying Treatments in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating disease of the central nervous system. Usually, long-term MS medications are injected intramuscularly or subcutaneously, making them intolerable for many MS patients.
In the present study, the rate and the causes of non-adherence to MS disease-modifying drugs (DMDs) were assessed in patients with MS.
Two hundred and three MS patients of Guilan MS Society were interviewed demographic and clinical data of the patients were collected.
Among the 203 patients, 73.9% were female. The mean±SD age of the patients was 32.47±9.15. Non-adherence to DMDs was due to side effects (21.7%) and requests of the families (21.7%) or ineffectiveness (17.4%). Significant association was seen between the non-adherence to DMDs and gender (p=0.015) and relapses (p=0.021).
The evidence from the present study suggests that there is a high rate of non-adherence to DMDs in MS patients in Guilan.