Rheumatoid Arthritis: Treat RA Early and Aggressively

Rheumatoid Arthritis should be treated early and aggressively if you expect the treatment to be effective and pay off, even in the long run, a researcher in Finland recommends.

Dr. Vappu Rantalaiho of Tampere University Hospital, Finland, and colleagues analyzed radiologic progression in 195 patients with rheumatoid arthritis -- 97 of whom had randomly initially received therapy combining methotrexate, sulfasalazine and hydroxychloroquine with prednisolone and 98 of whom received a single strategy -- initially sulfasalazine with or without prednisolone. After two years, the treatment was unrestricted for both groups.

The findings of the 11-year trial, published in the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy, found patients treated with a combination of drugs initially were found to have less radiographic damage in small joints, even long-term, than those treated initially with monotherapy.

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"Probably the most important precondition to our excellent results in most patients was the active treatment policy aiming at remission at all time points," Rantalaiho said in a statement.

"In the present study, the patients who were in strict remission at one year had significantly less radiologic progression throughout the follow-up than the patients who were not."

View Photos of Celebrities with Arthritis