Transient improvement of urticaria induces poor adherence as assessed by Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8.

Poor adherence to medication is a major public health challenge. Here, we aimed to determine the adherence to oral and topical medications and to analyze underlying associated factors using the translated Japanese version of Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 regarding urticaria treatment. Web-based questionnaires were performed for 3096 registered dermatological patients, along with a subanalysis of 751 registered urticaria patients in this study. The adherence to oral medication was significantly associated with the frequency of hospital visits. Variables that affected the adherence to topical medication included age and experience of drug effectiveness. The rate of responses that "It felt like the symptoms had improved" varied significantly among the dermatological diseases treated with oral medications. Dermatologists should be aware that adherence to the treatment of urticaria is quite low. Regular visits and active education for patients with urticaria are mandatory in order to achieve a good therapeutic outcome by increasing the adherence

Poor adherence to medication as assessed by the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 and low satisfaction with treatment in 237 psoriasis patients

Previously we assessed the medication adherence for oral and topical remedies by a translated Japanese version of the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 (MMAS-8) together with socioeconomic backgrounds in 3096 Japanese dermatological patients, and found the medication adherence, especially to topical drugs, was poor in these patients. In order to elucidate the disease-specific sociomedical factors, we further sub-analyzed the medication adherence in 237 psoriasis patients and compared it with that in other dermatological diseases such as atopic dermatitis, urticaria or tinea. This study was conducted among patients registered in monitoring system and 3096 eligible patients were enrolled. Our web-based questionnaire included the following items such as age, sex, annual income, main health-care institution, experience of effectiveness by oral or topical medication, overall satisfaction with treatment, and MMAS-8 for oral or topical medication. Mean adherence score by MMAS-8 was 5.2 for oral and 4.3 for topical medication. More patients with psoriasis used a university hospital and fewer used a private clinic compared with those with the other skin disease patients. Experience of drug effectiveness by oral medication and overall satisfaction with treatment was lower in psoriasis patients than in other patients. In oral medication, significantly better adherence was observed in those of higher age and with higher annual income. The adherence to medication, especially to topical drugs, was poor in 237 psoriasis patients. We speculated that some severe psoriasis patients were not sufficiently treated systemically and were resistant to topical therapy, leading to poor adherence

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements