Rheumatoid Arthritis – Medication

Transcript

So there’s a lot of research into rheumatoid arthritis and luckily there’s a lot of research in different medications to treat the disease, since we are getting better at diagnosing the disease and treating it early. As I mentioned, one of the medications that we use is called conventional synthetic DMARDs, which are medicines that are disease modifiers against antirheumatic drugs. And these include methotrexate, leflunomide, hydroxychloroquine, and sulfasalazine. There are also other medications called synthetic DMARDs, which are JAK inhibitors and as well as biologic DMARDs, which can be both injections or IV therapy. It is really important to work with your rheumatologist and get the best option to manage your symptoms and keep you safe from the side effects of the medication. Most of the therapies do require very close monitoring. So your rheumatologist will probably get labs for you frequently, to make sure there’s no complications from the medication.