Adherence with use of oral agents in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B

Abstract

Oral nucleos(t)ide agents are used to prevent major complications of chronic hepatitis B infection, such as the development of cirrhosis, hepatic decompensation, hepatocellular carcinoma, and death. To achieve benefit, long-term, and potentially, life-long, antiviral therapy is needed to maintain adequately suppressed hepatitis B viral loads, and therefore, medication adherence is essential. However, long-term therapy may also be complicated by virological breakthrough and the development of antiviral resistance. This will be a brief review of the several recent studies that have examined how patient adherence affects virological outcomes, as well as the potential factors that can affect adherence to antiviral therapy for hepatitis B. infection. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.