
Treatment modifications suggested for COPD patients in UK
The latest study on COPD care outcomes in the UK found that a majority of patients continue to experience symptoms and exacerbations, despite persisting on the same treatment for around a year, suggesting treatment modifications. According to this retrospective observational study conducted by different institutions and healthcare companies based in the UK, there is a need for treatment modification in individual cases in accordance with guideline recommendations. The researchers used two linked electronic databases containing health records of patients in England to find that patients could benefit from new treatments, such as long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) or long-acting β2-agonist (LABA) monotherapy, inhaled corticosteroid (ICS)/LABA or LAMA/LABA dual therapy, or a multiple-inhaler triple therapy (MITT; LAMA/LABA/ICS).