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The Patient’s Experience of Gout: New Insights to Optimize Management

  • CRYSTAL ARTHRITIS (MH PILLINGER, SECTION EDITOR)
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Abstract

Despite the high prevalence of disease, gout management is frequently poor, with low patient adherence to urate-lowering therapy and attainment of recommended serum urate targets. Recent research has explored the patient’s experience of gout, providing new understanding of the impact of disease. Pain is central to the patient’s experience of gout. Poorly controlled gout leads to limitation of activities, reduced participation, and poor health-related quality of life. Although effective gout management with urate-lowering therapy improves many patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials, major gaps exist in patient understanding of disease and adherence to long-term urate-lowering therapy. Furthermore, a large mismatch in the perceptions of gout and its therapy exists between patients and health care practitioners. These issues may contribute to progressive and poorly controlled disease despite the availability of effective treatment. These findings provide potential pathways to improved clinical care of patients with gout. Work is now required to identify the optimal models of care for patients with gout that can be tested in clinical trials using outcome measures of relevance to individuals with this disease.

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Acknowledgment

Dr. Dalbeth is supported by the Health Research Council of New Zealand.

Disclosure

Dr. Dalbeth has served as a consultant for Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ardea Biosciences, Novartis, Abbott Laboratories, Roche, and Fonterra Co-operative Group; has received grant support from Fonterra Co-operative Group; has served on the speakers’ bureau for Novartis; and has had travel/accommodations expenses covered/reimbursed by Abbott Laboratories.

Dr. Lindsay reported no potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bone Research Group, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, 85 Park Road, Grafton, Auckland, New Zealand

    Nicola Dalbeth & Karen Lindsay

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  1. Nicola Dalbeth
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  2. Karen Lindsay
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Correspondence to Nicola Dalbeth.

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Dalbeth, N., Lindsay, K. The Patient’s Experience of Gout: New Insights to Optimize Management. Curr Rheumatol Rep 14, 173–178 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11926-011-0228-0

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