Background and Aims: Pharmacological management of osteoarthritis (OA) focuses on reducing pain and functional impairment. The aim of this study was to understand the current real-world treatment paradigm as it relates to OA disease severity, for patients in 5 European countries. 
Methods: Data were drawn from the Adelphi OA Disease Specific Programme (2017-18), a point-in-time study of physicians and their patients in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. Physicians classified their patients as currently having mild, moderate or severe disease severity, and provided details on currently prescribed OA therapy and physician satisfaction with therapy, rated from very satisfied to very dissatisfied. Descriptive statistics were reported.
Results: The study included 4113 patients with OA: 25% mild (n=1035), 53% moderate (n=2197), 21% severe (n=881). Overall, 74% patients were prescribed at least one drug for their OA (66% of mild; 76% of moderate; 78% of severe patients). NSAIDs (63%), other analgesics, e.g. paracetamol, (45%) and opioids (38%) were the most frequently prescribed drugs, and opioid use increased as severity worsened (18% of mild; 36% of moderate, 63% of severe patients). The mean number of prescription analgesics increased (0.9 for mild; 1.4 for moderate; 1.7 for severe patients) and physician satisfaction decreased (86% for mild; 71% for moderate; 41% for severe) with worsening OA disease severity.
Conclusions: The reported decreasing physician satisfaction despite increased use of opioids and combination therapy with increasing disease severity, indicates sub-optimal management with current pharmacological OA therapeutic strategies.

CURRENT TREATMENT PATTERNS AMONG EUROPEAN PATIENTS WITH OSTEOARTHRITIS: ANALYSIS OF A REAL-WORLD DATASET