Arthritis Treatment: The Costs Of Not Treating Rheumatism Aggressively Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is easily the most common inflammatory kind of arthritis, affecting a lot more than 2 million Americans. It's a chronic autoimmune inflammatory disease that causes systemic problems, meaning it may affect organs, such as the lungs, heart, bone marrow, and eye. Additionally it is an important risk factor for the development of cardiovascular complications including stroke and heart attack.
Put into these concerns may be the significant problem with rheumatism which is when not treated aggressively, it can cause irreversible joint damage, chronic pain, and functional disability.
arthritis foundationWhile there is still no remedy for the illness yet, RA can be treated as well as put into remission if diagnosed early and addressed with urgency.
Even though many with the new medicines which were created in the past few years work, there's still no consensus on which someone to use first, which one to make use of second, when you switch drugs, when was the best time to discontinue one drug and start another, and so on.
Perhaps, with time we'll be in a position to individualize treatment programs. Progress in the field of exactly what are called "biomarkers"- tissue evidence which will give to us a unique profile of the given patient- is going to take us one stage further of treatment.
A bright spot is the continued progression of newer therapies with different modes of action that will permit more choices, fewer unwanted effects, and much more convenience.
Nonetheless, what exactly is clear at this time is the fact that delaying proper treatment contributes to functional decline which is difficult, otherwise impossible, to reverse.
This loss in physical function contributes to reduced productivity and increased healthcare costs.
arthritis foundationNumerous numerous studies have viewed various treatment options and shown that the combination of methotrexate, the disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) of preference plus a biologic drug results in a significantly greater chance of improvement and less probability of unemployability.
Another study has revealed that period of time of disease and degree of functional impairment correlate with higher medical costs and greater disability.
As well as an additional study by Maetzel and colleagues revealed that RA costs also appear to be greater than that because of other common medical conditions including osteoarthritis and hypertension (Maetzel A, et al. Ann Rheum Dis 2004; 63: 395-401).
The major hurdle today is getting patients with early RA to a rheumatologist early and having the rheumatologist initiate aggressive treatment at the earliest opportunity. A little more about this in the future articles.