Jharap B, Seinen ML, de Boer NK et al. Inflamm Bowel Dis 2010;16:1541–9.
In this study from The Netherlands, two inception cohorts of thiopurine-treated IBD patients (n=363) were assessed. Thiopurine-discontinuation rates were relatively high in these patients, quoted as 31% at 6 months, 49% at 2 years, and 58% at 5 years. The drugs were considered effective in approximately 40% of patients after 5 years.
Thiopurines are recommended early in the disease course in Crohn’s disease, especially in those in whom remission has been induced with corticosteroids, and for patients with steroid-dependent ulcerative colitis (UC). In the present study, two cohorts of thiopurine-treated IBD patients from The Netherlands were analyzed. The larger cohort was from a tertiary referral teaching hospital and the smaller from a district general hospital. Importantly, both were inception cohorts, with details of thiopurine therapy (including indication, dose, duration, intolerance, and discontinuation) logged prospectively into dedicated databases.