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Treatment adherence behaviours in rheumatic diseases during COVID-19 pandemic: a Latin American experience

2020; BMJ; Volume: 80; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-218198

1468-2060

R. Pineda-Sic, D. Á. Galarza-Delgado, Griselda Serna‐Peña, Sergio A. Castillo‐Torres, Diana Elsa Flores-Alvarado, Jorge Antonio Esquivel‐Valerio, I. D. J. Hernandez-Galarza,

COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies

With great interest, we read the recommendations from the German Society of Rheumatology regarding the management of patients with rheumatic diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic,1 in line with The American College of Rheumatology recommendations2 of continuing immunosuppressive therapy (IT) despite concerns of increased susceptibility to infections, since interruption might trigger an increase in disease activity associated with higher infection risk. Thus, one of the greatest challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic for rheumatologists concerns the patient’s adherence to treatment. Despite rheumatologists agreeing that IT should not be interrupted,1 2 patient’s own beliefs, perceptions and information about their disease influence the behaviour towards treatment adherence. Late in April, Michaud et al reported that patients with rheumatic diseases believed that IT increased their risk of contracting COVID-19 and the severity of the disease and that stopping IT might reduce that risk,3 …