In clinical practice, to control symptoms in patients with moderate to severe asthma, 7 out of 10 doctors prefer a proactive approach to regular dosing (Prd). Many patients on Mart therapy (Maintenance & reliever therapy) require additional rescue medications, suggesting that this approach is not applied correctly in the majority of cases and that patients may also perceive their asthma as inadequately controlled. These, in summary, are the results of a study that collected, through an online survey, the prescribing habits and experiences of doctors and patients for asthma therapy, recently published in ‘Respiratory Medicine’ and supported by GSK. The work – APPaRENT-2 (Astma patients and physicians perspectives on the burden and management of Asthma) – ha arruolato 1,650 asthmatics and 1,080 doctors (28% of which pulmonologists) and was conducted in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, France and Italy.
For the patient with moderate to severe asthma – explains Gsk in a note – 71% of clinicians prefer to start with a therapeutic regimen based on the Ics / Laba combination with or without the use of Saba (Short-acting beta-agonists) as needed, i.e. proactive therapy at regular dosage. Among pulmonologists this choice is even more significant: it is the intervention of choice for 75% of the specialists interviewed, demonstrating the consolidated trust of doctors in the Prd approach.
Another important result of the survey – it should be noted – is that 85% of patients who were prescribed Mart therapy were also prescribed an additional inhaler, the Saba al bisognor. Mart’s treatment relies on the patient using the same combination maintenance and reliever therapy, therefore a reliever Saba should not be prescribed at the same time. For 67% of these patients who took both Mart and Saba (this one as needed), Saba was given at their request. This suggests that the level of asthma control offered by the Mart approach alone is not reflected in clinical practice.
“There are very few studies in which both patients and doctors are involved to understand what the real clinical practice is and what are the preferred treatment regimens – he comments. Giorgio Walter Canonica, among the authors of the study and director of the Clinic of personalized medicine asthma & allergy and professor of respiratory medicine, Humanitas University Milan – The APPaRENT results are encouraging and tell us that the specialists’ preference for a proactive regimen with regular dosing with Ics / Laba, with or without a Saba rescue inhaler as needed, is an encouraging response to the need for patients as well Italians to gain control of their asthma “.
This survey – highlights the note – is part of GSK’s ongoing commitment to training those who follow patients, to ensure that patients themselves have new evidence that can help them achieve better asthma control.