27
Views
28
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Review Article

Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: a global perspective on the use of antirheumatic drugs

, &
Pages 228-239 | Received 11 Dec 2007, Accepted 29 Jan 2008, Published online: 02 Jan 2014

References

  • Kelley WN, Harris ED Jr, Ruddy S, Sledge CB. Textbook of Rheumatology. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: W.B.Saunders; 1985.
  • Short CL, Bauer W. The course of rheumatoid arthritis in patients receiving simple medical and orthopedic measures. N Engl J Med. 1948;238:142–8.
  • Pincus T, Callahan LF, Sale WG, Brooks AL, Payne LE, Vau-ghn WK. Severe functional declines, work disability, and increased mortality in seventy-five rheumatoid arthritis patients studied over nine years. Arthritis Rheum. 1984;27:864–72.
  • Scott DL, Grindulis KA, Struthers GR, Coulton BL, Popert AJ, Bacon PA. Progression of radiological changes in rheumatoid arthritis. Ann Rheum Dis. 1984;43:8–17.
  • Yelin E, Meenan R, Nevitt M, Epstein W. Work disability in rheumatoid arthritis: effects of disease, social, and work factors. Ann Intern Med. 1980;93:551–6.
  • Wilske KR, Healey LA. Remodeling the pyramid-a concept whose time has come. J Rheumatol. 1989;16:565–7.
  • Fries JF. Reevaluating the therapeutic approach to rheumatoid arthritis: the "sawtooth" strategy. J Rheumatol. 1990;17 Suppl 22:12–5.
  • Emery P, Salmon M. Early rheumatoid arthritis: time to aim for remission? Ann Rheum Dis. 1995;54:944–7.
  • Luukkainen R, Kajander A, Isomäki H. Effect of gold on pro-gression of erosions in rheumatoid arthritis: better results with early treatment. Scand J Rheumatol. 1977;6:189–92.
  • Luukkainen R, Kajander A, Isomäki H. Treatment of rheuma-toid arthritis (letter). Br Med J. 1978;2:1501.
  • Pincus T, Gibofsky A, Weinblatt ME. Urgent care and tight control of rheumatoid arthritis as in diabetes and hypertension: better treatments but a shortage of rheumatologists. Arthritis Rheum. 2002;46(4):851–4.
  • Kellgren JH, Bier F. Radiological signs of rheumatoid arthritis: a study of observer differences in the reading of hand films. Ann Rheum Dis. 1956;15:55–60.
  • Lawrence JS, Bennett PH. Benign polyarthritis. Ann Rheum Dis. 1960;19:20–30.
  • Mikkelsen WM, Dodge H. A four year follow-up of suspected rheumatoid arthritis: the Tecumseh, Michigan, community health study. Arthritis Rheum. 1969;12:87–91.
  • O'Sullivan JB, Cathcart ES. The prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis: follow-up evaluation of the effect of criteria on rates in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Ann Intern Med. 1972;76:573–7.
  • Nissild M, Isomäki H, Kaarela K, Kiviniemi P, Martio J, Sarna S. Prognosis of inflammatory joint diseases. A three-year fol-low-up study. Scand J Rheumatol. 1983;12:33–8.
  • Emery P, Gough A. Why early arthritis clinics? Br J Rheumatol. 1991;30:241–2.
  • Scott DL, Symmons DP, Coulton BL, Popert AJ. Long-term outcome of treating rheumatoid arthritis: Results after 20 years. Lancet. 1987;16:1108–11.
  • Symmons DPM, Hazes JMW, Silman AJ. Cases of early inflammatory polyarthritis should not be classified as having rheumatoid arthritis. J Rheumatol. 2003;30:902–4.
  • Allbutt T, Rolleston H. A system of medicine. London: Macmillan, 1907.
  • Amett FC, Edworthy SM, Bloch DA, McShane DJ, Fries JF, Cooper NS, et al. The American Rheumatism Association 1987 revised criteria for the classification of rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 1988;31:315–24.
  • Harrison BJ, Symmons DPM, Barrett EM, Silman AJ. The performance of the 1987 ARA classification criteria for rheu-matoid arthritis in a population based cohort of patients with early inflammatory polyarthritis. J Rheumatol. 1998;25:2324–30.
  • Saraux A, Berthelot JM, Chalès G, Le Henaff C, 'Thorel JB, Hoang S, et al. Ability of the American College of Rheuma-tology 1987 criteria to predict rheumatoid arthritis in patients with early arthritis and classification of these patients two years later. Arthritis Rheum. 2001;44(11):2485–91.
  • Wolfe F, Michaud K. The clinical and research significance of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate. J Rheumatol. 1994;21:1227–37.
  • Pincus T, Sokka T. Prevalence of normal erythrocyte sedimen-tation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) on presentation of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at two rheumatology settings, one in the US and the other in Finland: Is a patient questionnaire a better quantitative measure of clinical severity? Arthritis Rheum. 2005;52(9):S127.
  • Pincus T, Callahan LF. The 'side effects' of rheumatoid arthritis: Joint destruction, disability and early mortality. Br J Rheumatol. 1993;32\(suppl 1):28–37.
  • van Dongen H, van Aken J, Lard LR, Ronday H.K, Hulsmans H.M.J., Speyer I, et al. Efficacy of methotrexate treatment in patients with probable rheumatoid arthritis: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Arthritis Rheum. 2007;56:1424–32.
  • Möttönen T, Hannonen P, Korpela M, Nissild M, Kautiainen H, Ilonen J, et al. Delay to institution of therapy and induction of remission using single-drug or combination-disease-modifying antirheumatic drug therapy in early rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 2002;46(4):894–8.
  • Puolakka K, Kautiainen H, Mottonen T, Hannonen P, Korpela M, Hakala M, et al. Early suppression of disease activity is essential for maintenance of work capacity in patients with recent-onset rheumatoid arthritis: five-year experience from the FIN-RACo trial. Arthritis Rheum. 2005;52(1):36–41.
  • Grigor C, Cape11 H, Stirling A, McMahon AD, Lock P, Vallance R, et al. Effect of a treatment strategy of tight control for rheumatoid arthritis (the TICORA study): a single-blind ran-domised controlled trial. Lancet. 2004;364: 263–9.
  • Paulus HE. Defining remission in rheumatoid arthritis: what is it? does it matter? J Rheumatol. 2004;31(1):1–4.
  • Combe B, Landewe R, Lukas C, Bolosiu HD, Breedveld F, Dougados M, et al. EULAR recommendations for the manage-ment of early arthritis: report of a task force of the European Standing Committee for International Clinical Studies Including Therapeutics (ESCISIT). Ann Rheum Dis. 2007;66(1):34–45.
  • Pincus T, Yazici Y, Sokka T, Aletaha D, Smolen JS. Metho-trexate as the "anchor drug" for the treatment of early rheumatoid arthritis. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2003;21:S179–85.
  • Kremer JM. Toward a better understanding of methotrexate. Arthritis Rheum. 2004;50(5):1370–82.
  • Pincus T, Marcum SB, Callahan LF. Long-term drug therapy for rheumatoid arthritis in seven rheumatology private practices: II. Second-line drugs and prednisone. J Rheumatol. 1992;19:1885–94.
  • Wolfe F, Hawley DJ, Cathey MA. Termination of slow acting anti-rheumatic therapy in rheumatoid arthritis: A 14-year pro-spective evaluation of 1017 consecutive starts. J Rheumatol. 1990;17: 994–1002.
  • Leirisalo-Repo M, Mottonen THP, Korpela M, Kauppi M, Kaipiainen-Seppanen 0, Luosujarvi R et al. Does addition of infliximab to triple DMARD plus prednisolone therapy increase rate of remissions in patients with early active rheumatoid arthritis? A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study. Arthritis Rheum; 2006:54(9 Suppl).
  • Sokka T, Hannonen P, Mottonen T. Conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs in early arthritis. Rheum Dis Clin N Am. 2005;31(4):729–44.
  • Miyasaka N, Koike R. Treatment guidelines for the use of biologics in rheumatoid arthritis; present and future. Nippon Rinsho. 2007;65(7):1169–78.
  • Bergstrom U, Book C, Lindroth Y, Marsal L, Saxne T, Jacobsson L. Lower disease activity and disability in Swedish patients with rheumatoid arthritis in 1995 compared with 1978. Scand J Rheumatol. 1999;28:160–5.
  • Pincus T, Sokka T, Kautiainen H. Patients seen for standard rheumatoid arthritis care have significantly better articular, radiographic, laboratory, and functional status in 2000 than in 1985. Arthritis Rheum. 2005;52: 1009–19.
  • Sokka T, Möttonen T, Hannonen P. Disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug use according to the `sawtooth' treatment strategy improves the functional outcome in rheumatoid arthri-tis: Results of a long-term follow-up study with review of the literature. Rheumatology. 2000;39:34–42.
  • Krishnan E, Fries JF. Reduction in long-term functional dis-ability in rheumatoid arthritis from 1977 to 1998: a longitudinal study of 3035 patients. Am J Med. 2003;115:371–6.
  • Heiberg T, Finset A, Uhlig T, Kvien TK. Seven year changes in health status and priorities for improvement of health in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Ann Rheum Dis. 2005;64:191–5.
  • Sokka TM, Kaarela K, Mottonen TT, Hannonen PJ. Conven-tional monotherapy compared to a "sawtooth" treatment strategy in the radiographic procession of rheumatoid arthritis over the first eight years. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 1999;17:527–32.
  • Sokka T, Kautiainen H, Hlikkinen K, Hannonen P. Radiographic progression is getting milder in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis. Results of 3 cohorts over 5 years. J Rheumatol. 2004;31:1073–82.
  • Sokka T, Kautiainen H, Hannonen P. Stable occurrence of knee and hip total joint replacement in Central Finland between 1986 and 2003: an indication of improved long-term outcomes of rheumatoid arthritis. Ann Rheum Dis. 2007;66(3):341–4.
  • Krause D, Schleusser B, Herborn G, Rau R. Response to methotrexate treatment is associated with reduced mortality in patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 2000;43:14–21.
  • Choi HK, Hernán MA, Seeger JD, Robins JM, Wolfe F. Methotrexate and mortality in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a prospective study. Lancet. 2002;359:1173–7.
  • Silman A, Davies P, Currey HLF, Evans SJW. Is rheumatoid arthritis becoming less severe? J Chronic Dis. 1983;36:891–7.
  • Aho K, Tuomi T, Palosuo T, Kaarela K, von Essen R, Isomaki H. Is seropositive rheumatoid arthritis becoming less severe? Clin Exp Rheumatol. 1989;7:287–90.
  • Sokka T, Kautiainen H, Toloza S, Makinen H, Verstappen SM, Lund HM, et al. QUEST-RA: quantitative clinical assessment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis seen in standard rheumatology care in 15 countries. Ann Rheum Dis. 2007;66(11):1491–6.
  • Aletaha D, Smolen JS. The rheumatoid arthritis patient in the clinic: comparing more than 1300 consecutive DMARD courses. Rheum. 2002;41:1367–74.
  • Jobanputra P, Wilson J, Douglas K, Burls A. A survey of British rheumatologists' DMARD preferences for rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatology. 2003;42:1–5.
  • Hider SL, Silman AJ, Bunn D, Manning S, Symmons DP, Lunt M. Comparing the long-term clinical outcome between met-hotrexte and sulfasalazine prescribed as the first DMARD in patients with inflammatory polyarthritis. Ann Rheum Dis. 2006; 65(11):1449–55.
  • Welsing PMJ, Fransen J, van Riel PLCM. Is the disease course of rheumatoid arthritis becoming milder? Time trends since 1985 in an inception cohort of early rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 2005;52:2616–24.
  • Willkens RF, Watson MA, Paxson CS. Low dose pulse meth-otrexate therapy in rheumatoid arthritis. J Rheumatol. 1980;7:501–5.
  • Hoffmeister RT. Methotrexate therapy in rheumatoid arthritis: 15 years experience. Am J Med. 1983;75(suppl 6A):69–73.
  • Kremer JM. Methotrexate update. Scan J Rheumatol. 1996;25:341–4.
  • Suzuki Y. Methotrexate for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in Japan-much more still remains to be resolved. Nippon Rinsho. 2002;60(12):2331–8.
  • Jacoby RK, Jayson MIV, Cosh JA. Onset, early stages, and prognosis of rheumatoid arthritis: a clinical study of 100 patients with 11-year follow-up. Br Med J. 1973;2: 96–100.
  • Minaur N, Jacoby R, Cosh J, Taylor G, Rasker J. Outcome after 40 years with rheumatoid arthritis: a prospective study of function, disease activity and mortality. J Rheumatol. 2004;31(569):3–8.
  • Kaarela K. Prognostic factors and diagnostic criteria in early rheumatoid arthritis. Scand J Rheumatol Suppl. 1985;57:1–54.
  • Sokka T. Early rheumatoid arthritis in Finland. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2003;21:S133–7.
  • Jantti JK, Kaarela K, Belt EA, Kautiainen HJ. Incidence of severe outcome in rheumatoid arthritis during 20 years. J Rheumatol. 2002;29(4):688–92.
  • Kaarela K, Kautiainen H. Continuous progression of radiologi-cal destruction in seropositive rheumatoid arthritis. J Rheumatol. 1997;24:1285–7.
  • Welsing PM, van Riel PL. The Nijmegen inception cohort of early rheumatoid arthritis. J Rheumatol Suppl. 2004;69:14–21.
  • Häkkinen A, Sokka T, Kotaniemi A, Hannonen P. A randomized two-year study of the effects of dynamic strength training on muscle strength, disease activity, functional capacity, and bone mineral density in early rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 2001;44:515–22.
  • Sokka T, Pincus T. Contemporary disease modifying antirheu-matic drugs (DMARD) in patients with recent onset rheumatoid arthritis in a US private practice: methotrexate as the anchor drug in 90% and new DMARD in 30% of patients. J Rheumatol. 2002;29(12):2521–4.
  • Sokka TM, Kautiainen HJ, Hannonen PJ. A retrospective study of treating RA patients with various combinations of slow-acting antirheumatic drugs in a county hospital. Scand J Rheumatol. 1997;26:440–3.
  • Klaukka T, Kaarela K. Methotrexate is the leading DMARD in Finland. Ann Rheum Dis. 2003;62:494–6.
  • Finckh A, Choi HK, Wolfe F. Progression of radiographic joint damage in different eras: trends towards milder disease in rheumatoid arthritis are attributable to improved treatment. Ann Rheum Dis. 2006;65(9):1192–7.
  • Sokka T. Rheumatoid arthritis databases. Rheum Dis Clin North Am. 2004;30(4):769–81.
  • Pincus T, Sokka T. Uniform databases in early arthritis: specific measures to complement classification criteria and indices of clinical change. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2003;21:579–88.
  • Sokka T, Pincus T. Quantitative joint assessment in rheumatoid arthritis. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2005;23:558–62.
  • Jantti J, Kaarela K, Kautiainen H, Isomaki H, Aho K. Radio-graphic remission in seropositive rheumatoid arthritis. A 20-year follow-up study. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2001;19: 573–6.
  • Young A, Dixey J, Cox N, Davies P, Devlin J, Emery P, et al. How does functional disability in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) affect patients and their live? Results of 5 years of follow-up in 732 patients from the Early RA Study (ERAS). Rheu-matology. 2000;39:603–11.
  • Bukhari MAS, Wiles NJ, Lunt M, Harrison BJ, Scott DGI, Symmons DPM, et al. Influence of disease-modifying therapy on radiographic outcome in inflammatory polyarthritis at five years: results from a large observational inception study. Arthritis Rheum. 2003;48:46–53.
  • Papadopoulos NG, Alamanos Y, Papadopoulos IA, Tsifetaki N, Voulgari PV, Drosos AA. Disease modifying antirheumatic drugs in early rheumatoid arthritis: a longterm observational study. J Rheumatol. 2002;29:261–6.
  • Paulus HE, Ramos B, Wong WK, Ahmed A, Bulpitt K, Park G, et al. Equivalence of the acute phase reactants C-reactive protein, plasma viscosity, and Westergren erythrocyte sedmientation rate when used to calculate American College of Rheumatology 20% improvement criteria or the disease activity score in patients with rearly rheumatoid arthritis. Western Consortium of Practicing Rheumatologists. J Rheumatol. 1999;26(11):2324–32.
  • Forslind K, Ahlmen M, Eberhardt K, Hafstrom I, Svensson B. Prediction of radiological outcome in early rheumatoid arthritis in clinical practice: role of antibodies to citrullinated peptides (anti-CCP). Ann Rheum Dis. 2004;63(9):1090–5.
  • Makinen H, Kautiainen H, Hannonen P, Sokka T. Frequency of remissions in early rheumatoid arthritis defined by 3 sets of criteria. A 5-year followup study. J Rheumatol. 2005;32:796–800.
  • Carli C, Ehlin AG, Klareskog L, Lindblad S, Montgomery SM. Trends in disease modifying antirheumatic drug prescription in early rheumatoid arthritis are influenced more by hospital setting than patient or disease characteristics. Ann Rheum Dis. 2006;65(8):1102–5.
  • Bombardier C, Deaton RL, Gregersen P, Massarotti E, Formica C, Weisman MH. Pattern of DMARD use in a North American cohort of patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (SONORA). Arthritis Rheum. 2002;46(95):5344.
  • GIARA Registry Study Group. Aggressive rheumatoid arthritis registry in Italy. Characteristics of the early rheumatoid arthritis subtype among patients classified according to the ACR criteria. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2003;21:S129–32.
  • Rasker JJ, Cosh JA. Radiological study of cervical spine and hand in patients with rheumatoid arthritis of 15 years' duration: an assessment of the effects of corticosteroid treatment. Ann Rheum Dis. 1978;37:529–35.
  • Rlise T, Jacobsen BK, Gran JT. Changes in therapy of rheu-matoid arthritis during the period 1979 to 1996. Scan J Rheumatol. 2001;30: 199–202.
  • Edwards CJ, Arden NK, Fisher D, Saperia JC, Reading I, Van Staa TP, et al. The changing use of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis from the United Kingdom General Practice Research Database. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2005;44(11):1394–8.
  • van Schaardenburg D, Hazes JM, de Boer A, Zwinderman AH, Meijers KA, Breedveld FC. Outcome of rheumatoid arthritis in relation to age and rheumatoid factor at diagnosis. J Rheumatol. 1993;20(1):45–52.
  • Hamada Y, Shinomiya F, Okada M, Fujimura T. Outcome of patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated by step-wise admin-istration of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs over a 10-year period. Mod Rheumatol. 2003;13:27–34.
  • Gordon P, West J, Jones H, Gibson T. A 10 year prospective followup of patients with rheumatoid arthritis 1986-96. J Rheumatol. 2001;28(11):2400–8.
  • Kvien TK, Uhlig T, Kristiansen IS. Criteria for TNF-targeted therapy in rheumatoid arthritis: estimates of the number of patients potentially eligible. Drugs. 2001;61:1711–20.
  • Soderlin MK, Lindroth Y, Jacobsson LT. Trends in medication and health-related quality of life in a population-based rheu-matoid arthritis register in Malmo, Sweden. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2007;46(8):1355–8.
  • Eberhardt K, Fex E. Clinical course and remission rate in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis: relationship to outcome after 5 years. Br J Rheumatol. 1998;37:1324–9.
  • Lindqvist E, Saxne T, Geborek P, Eberhardt K. Ten year out-come in a cohort of patients with early rheumatoid arthritis: health status, disease process, and damage. Ann Rheum Dis. 2002;61:1055–9.
  • Dadoniene J, Uhlig T, Stropuviene S, Venalis A, Boonen A, Kvien TK. Disease activity and health status in rheumatoid arthritis: a case-control comparison between Norway and Lith-uania. Ann Rheum Dis. 2003;62(3):231–5.
  • Gonzalez-Alvaro I, Carmona L, Balsa A, Sanmarti R, Belmonte MA, Tena X, et al. Patterns of disease modifying antirheumatic drug use in a Spanish cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. J Rheumatol. 2003;30:697–704.
  • Thiele K, Buttgereit F, Huscher D, Zink A. Current use of glucocorticoids in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in Germany. Arthriis Rheum. 2005;53(5):740–7.
  • Kvien TK, Heiberg MS, Lie E, Kaufmann C, Mikkelsen K, Nordvag B-Y, et al. A Norwegian DMARD register: prescrip-tions of DMARDs and biological agents to patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2005;23:5188–94.
  • Yamanaka H, Inoue E, Singh G, Tanaka E, Nakajima A, Tanig-uchi A, et al. Improvement of disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis patients from 2000 to 2006 in a large observational cohort study IORRA in Japan. Mod Rheumatol. 2007;17(4):283–9.
  • Badsha H, Kong KO, Tak PP. Rheumatoid arthritis in Dubai-delayed diagnosis and low usage of disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. Ann Rheum Dis. 2007;66(6):835.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.