Conventional drug therapy for inflammatory bowel disease

Abstract

Most patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are offered conventional medical therapy, because emerging therapies for IBD are regulated by health-care jurisdiction and often limited to academic centres. This review distils current evidence to provide a pragmatic approach to conventional IBD therapy, including aminosalicylates, corticosteroids, thiopurines, methotrexate, calcineurin inhibitors, infliximab and adalimumab. It addresses drug efficacy, safety and salient practice points for optimal and appropriate practice.

Key Words:

• Crohn’s disease
• inflammatory bowel disease
• ulcerative colitis

Declaration of interest: Dr Bryant and Dr Brain declare no conflicts of interest. Dr Travis is a former President of ECCO and conducted no industry consulting during his time as President, but since that time has acted as advisor to, lecturer for, or been in receipt of research support from AbbVie, Boerrhinger, Cosmo, Ferring, Genentech, GSK, Novo Nordisk, NPS, Pfizer, Takeda. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.