Abstract
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that begins in childhood and persists into adulthood. It has a huge impact on the quality of life of patients. Management of AD primarily involves topical therapies before a step up to systemic treatments. Nonadherence to treatment is a common issue as 30% of AD patients don’t take their medication as prescribed. It is important to identify reasons for nonadherence and implement effective interventions to overcome barriers to nonadherence. Frequently cited barriers include a fear of adverse effects, unclear treatment instructions, messy application, forgetfulness and high costs. Educational workshops, written action plans, early and frequent follow-up visits and reminder systems may help combat these barriers and improve adherence. Better adherence to treatment can lead to better treatment outcomes, quality of life and ease the economic burden.
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Conflicts of Interest
Feldman has received research, speaking and/or consulting support from a variety of companies including Galderma, GSK/Stiefel, Almirall, Leo Pharma, Boehringer Ingelheim, Mylan, Celgene, Pfizer, Valeant, Abbvie, Samsung, Janssen, Lilly, Menlo, Merck, Novartis, Regeneron, Sanofi, Novan, Qurient, National Biological Corporation, Caremark, Advance Medical, Sun Pharma, Suncare Research, Informa, UpToDate and National Psoriasis Foundation. He is founder and majority owner of www.DrScore.com and founder and part owner of Causa Research, a company dedicated to enhancing patients’ adherence to treatment. Dr. Lindsay Strowd has received grant support from Pfizer, consulting support from Sandofi Regeneron Granzyme and is a speaker for Actelion.
Sree Kolli, Adrian Pona and Abigail Cline have no conflicts to disclose.
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Kolli, S.S., Pona, A., Cline, A., Strowd, L.C., Feldman, S.R. (2020). Adherence in Atopic Dermatitis. In: Feldman, S., Cline, A., Pona, A., Kolli, S. (eds) Treatment Adherence in Dermatology. Updates in Clinical Dermatology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27809-0_8
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