Publication:

Study of various reasons for interruption of anti-tubercular treatment in patients of tuberculosis reporting to tertiary care center of west Rajasthan

Background Tuberculosis is a major cause of death in India. Premature cessation of treatment in tuberculosis patient is a leading cause for developing MDR (multidrug resistant tuberculosis) as well as a major threat to control programs. Despite the easy approach and free of cost, availability to antitubercular medicines the interruptions of the treatment are still on a high. So, we analyzed  such various reasons  leading to interrupt the antitubercular treatment.

Methods Total 150 patients who interrupted the antitubercular treatment, were interviewed with a predesigned questionnaire and the result was analyzed.

Results Out of total 150 patients 115 (76.7%)  male and 35 (23.3%)  female were interviewed, who were  having  history of antitubercular treatment interruption. Out of 150 patients, 79 (52.7%) patients stopped their treatment because of improvement. Total 25 (16.7%) patients had stopped their treatment because of high cost, 16 (10.7%) due to personal/family reason, 17 (11.4%) patients had stopped their treatment due to nausea/vomiting/anorexia, 5 (3.3%) due to alcoholism/drug or other addiction, 2 (1.3%) patients  had stopped their treatment because they were advised to stop it  by health personnel and long distance travelled to take drugs.

Conclusions Improvement of symptoms was  the most common reason  in patients who received DOTS treatment and high cost of treatment in patients who received non DOTS treatment. Poor education and socioeconomic status of society are the other reasons for possible treatment interruptions because as soon as the patient improves, they move out to earn their wages to run the family with the unavoidable default from the treatment.