Abstract
In outpatients with bronchial asthma, therapeutic events occurring before and after pharmaceutical instructions were investigated in patients having a better or poorer understanding their own disease and the medication being taken. No rehospitalization was observed in any of the patients after the pharmaceutical instructions were fully explained. The frequency of acute exacerbation required of intravenous drip of glucocorticoids and/or aminophylline were markedly decreased in a patients with a good understanding of the pharmaceutical instruction. In patients with a poor understanding, however, during the one-year period following the instructions, frequency of the exacerbations was almost the same as that before the instructions though exacerbation did not necessitate hospitalization and their clinical course improved afterwards. Our patients with bronchial asthma were able to comprehend the importance of medication with the partial improvement of symptoms resulting from carefully prescribed pharmaceutical instructions, especially with regard to the adequate use of the metered dose inhaler. Therefore, compared with the patients having other chronic diseases, patients with bronchial asthma took their medication with good compliance, along with adequate use of the metered dose inhaler despite some patients having a poor understanding of their disease and the efficacy of the medication administered.
