What is it about?

When people are first diagnosed as having rheumatoid arthritis (RA) they are prescribed drugs called disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), examples of which are methotrexate and sulphasalazine. Effective early treatment has the potential to change the course of RA and to reduce the chances of disability in the future. However, sometimes the first DMARDs have to be changed because of adverse effects or poor efficacy. In this study, we looked at pain and other factors at the time of diagnosis with RA, and assessed whether they were related to stopping the first DMARDs. The people we looked at were from the Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Network (ERAN), which is a large (1200 people) database following newly-diagnosed RA for up to 10 years. Having to change DMARD within the first 2 years of RA was not associated with pain at baseline, but was associated with worse disability, poorer mental health status and the manifestations of RA outside of the joints. The choice of first DMARD also appeared to influence the chances of change, with methotrexate appearing more likely to be continued

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Why is it important?

The success of the first treatments for people with RA are often pivotal in helping them manage their condition into the future.

Perspectives

Effective early treatments appear to be very important.

Dr Daniel McWilliams
University of Nottingham

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Baseline factors predicting change from the initial DMARD treatment during the first 2 years of rheumatoid arthritis: experience in the ERAN inception cohort, BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, May 2013, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1186/1471-2474-14-153.
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