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Combining an older synthetic drug with a newer, "biologic" medication may work best to ease the joint swelling and tenderness of rheumatoid arthritis, a new study finds.

There are many therapies for rheumatoid arthritis, but the newer drugs are not better than older ones when used alone, the report's authors found.

"There are no clinically important differences among the older synthetic drugs or among the newer biologic drugs," said lead researcher Dr. Katrina E. Donahue, an assistant professor in the department of family medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "There are combination therapies that do work better than using one drug in people not responding to one drug alone," she said....

The original article can found in the Media Doctor archives.

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This is a meta analysis of 23 published studies comparing the benefits and harms of different rheumatoid arthritis drugs including synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), biologic DMARDs, and corticosteroids. The research reported in the article is to help answer the question: Are combinations of drugs for rheumatoid arthritis better than single agents. A reader might get confused with all the drugs mentioned but the article makes the point that when looking at the available research, many of these treatments, even the older treatments work equally well.
What would have enhanced the article is some information on the drugs' availability in Canada and their cost, as we know the cost of the various DMARDS and biologics can be a significant factor in determining the type of treatment patients receive.

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