Symptom relief may be among the top factors contributing to patient dissatisfaction with prescription allergy medication, according to the survey of 1,214 allergy patients conducted by Harris Interactive. Among allergy patients who are not fully satisfied with their current prescription allergy medication, 55 percent say they are not satisfied because their allergy medication does not relieve their symptoms for a long enough period of time, and 44 percent are not satisfied because their allergy medication does not provide symptom relief quickly enough.
"Patients are taking two, three, sometimes four different medications at a time to relieve their symptoms quickly and effectively because they are increasingly unsatisfied with their allergy medications," said Alpen Patel, MD, Assistant Professor in Otolaryngology, George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, D.C., member of AAFA's Medical-Scientific Council. "This can be a very costly, dangerous and frequently ineffective solution to treating bothersome symptoms."
Forty-seven percent of allergy patients say they are taking multiple allergy prescription medications and 36 percent of allergy patients who take prescription allergy medication also say they are using over-the-counter or non-prescription allergy medications.
While showing the desire among a majority of allergy patients for new prescription allergy treatments, the survey also reveals what patients consider to be important aspects of an allergy prescription medication, including:
- Long-lasting: Eighty-eight percent of allergy patients believe it is
important for prescription allergy medications to provide long-lasting
relief of symptoms.
- Fast-acting: Eighty-five percent of allergy patients believe it is
important prescription allergy medications work quickly to relieve
symptoms. (Eighty-three percent of allergy patients consider quick
allergy symptom relief to be within 30 minutes.)
- Steroid-free: About half of allergy patients (51 percent) believe it is
important for allergy medications to be steroid-free.
Oral medications are the most commonly used form of prescription allergy medication (67 percent); however, about four out of five allergy patients (81 percent) say they would try a nasal spray to treat their allergy symptoms.
When it comes to choosing a new medication, many patients may be confused by all the options. About half (51 percent) of those who say they are interested in switching to another prescription allergy medication agree they are confused by all of the different options available today, and six out of 10 patients (59 percent) agree they wish they knew more about the different types of prescription allergy medications available.
"Nearly 30 percent of patients admit they don't even know what type of allergy medication they are taking, whether it is an antihistamine or an anti- inflammatory steroid drug," said Patel. "The survey findings suggest the need for patients to have open dialogues with their doctors about the allergy medications they are taking and available treatment options out there."
