To investigate the use of traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (tNSAIDs) in the management of osteoarthritis (OA) in primary care in Spain and to quantify patient and physician satisfaction with tNSAID therapy.
A 6-month retrospective, observational study conducted in 29 Spanish primary-care centres shortly before the first introduction of selective COX-2 inhibitors (Coxibs).
A total of 897 patients with a mean age 66 +/- 9 years and radiologically documented OA were included: most (76%) were women. Three-quarters of the patients had primary generalised OA, with the knees (> 60% of cases) and lumbar spine (> 50% of cases) being the sites most commonly affected. Pain was an almost universal feature of the clinical presentation. More than 96% of patients had been prescribed tNSAIDs during the observation period, predominantly for pain relief. The most commonly prescribed agents were diclofenac, aceclofenac and piroxicam. Twenty-six per cent of discontinuations of tNSAIDs during the observation period were due to limited effectiveness of these drugs, making this the largest single cause of discontinuation apart from prescription expiry. Almost half of patients and physicians (46% in both categories) were not satisfied with OA treatment and only one patient in six regarded their overall health status during tNSAID therapy as satisfactory. Gastroprotective medications (GPMs) were prescribed for just over half the participating patients (51%), but use of these drugs appeared haphazard: 25% of those who received GPMs had no compelling indications for this therapy whereas more than half of the patients at high risk for gastrointestinal complications on the basis of clinical criteria were not receiving GPMs.
There is a high level of dissatisfaction with tNSAID therapy of OA, arising in large part from a perception among many patients and physicians that these drugs are not always adequately effective in relieving the symptoms of this disease. These findings, together with the low patient perceptions of general health, indicate the need for new therapeutic approaches to OA.