Originally posted Feb. 13, 2023; reposted in conjunction with publication of the PMR supplement to the February 2024 issue of The Rheumatologist. PHILADELPHIA—Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is a chronic inflammatory condition that almost exclusively affects individuals older than 50.1 First described in 1888, PMR has been a recognized rheumatic disease since at least 1957. Diagnosing the…
Your patient with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) isn’t responding well enough to methotrexate, and you both agree it’s time to consider a biologic or targeted synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD). But which one should you choose? In a treat-to-target era, we’re fortunate to have a variety of RA therapies at our disposal. Clinical practice guidelines from…
Any given rheumatology patient who needs a biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) will spend $22,000–44,000 on their medication each year…
New research exploring the effects of etanercept on cardiovascular disease in treatment-naive, early RA patients suggests a treatment advantage with etanercept, a TNF inhibitor and methotrexate over treatment with methotrexate and a conventional synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug…
CHICAGO—Amid what she called a “dizzying array of choices” for rheumatoid arthritis (RA)—from anti-TNF and anti-IL6-receptor therapies to B cell depletion to new biosimilar options—disease treatment should still revolve around several basic concepts, an expert said at the ACR State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium in April. Joan Bathon, MD, chief of rheumatology at Columbia University in New…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) reduce the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in patients with early undifferentiated arthritis, researchers from France report. Several studies have suggested that conventional or biological DMARDs might interfere with the pathogenic process and prevent more established forms of RA, but it remains unclear whether these drugs are…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Effective pharmacotherapy of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is not associated with meaningful improvements in mental health, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis. “We were surprised by the small effect sizes for mental-health outcomes across all of the treatments included in this review, but particularly for the anti-TNF versus disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD)…
In the complex web of interactions between systemic inflammatory response, rheumatic disease and disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), what is the potential for using rheumatologic therapies to treat other medical conditions linked to inflammation? Some medical researchers have looked at cardiac conditions, and others have examined the overlap with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Positive effects…
SAN DIEGO—In a presentation on what rheumatology nurses should know in their daily practice about disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) at the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting Nov. 3–8, Jessica Farrell, PharmD, highlighted the importance of educating and counseling patients about the range of treatments and applications for rheumatologic conditions. Dr. Farrell, a clinical pharmacist at the…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Pneumococcal vaccination yields a satisfactory antibody response in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), but synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) might reduce the vaccine response in these individuals, according to a report from Sweden. The prospective study, published online Jan. 8 in Rheumatology, evaluated the response to either pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) or…