The reality of drug use in COPD: the European perspective.

COPD guidelines provide advice about the appropriate use of various medications in treating patients with this condition. Comparisons of drug therapy as recommended by these guidelines with what is actually prescribed by both primary care physicians and specialist pulmonologists in a number of European countries can be examined in a variety of ways. Nonadherence to guidelines and differences between countries are caused by a number of factors, including varying degrees of misdiagnosis and different national attitudes to various classes of drugs.