COPD patients tend to drop drugs during final year
By HME News Staff
Updated Thu April 30, 2009
CHICAGO--COPD patients use respiratory medications intermittently during the last year of life, says a new study published in the April issue of the Respiratory Medicine Journal. In reviewing medication use for 11,376 individuals with the disease, researchers found that only about half had used any medication at all during their final year of life. The study included patients who used inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting beta-agonists. “In COPD, studies of medication persistence and compliance tend to observe that early discontinuation occurs among a large number of COPD patients,” researchers wrote.
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