May 26, 2008

Treatment For Psoriatic Arthritis

Posted in Category : Bone, Joint & Muscles Disorders

Treatment for psoriatic arthritis is done using medications. There are several types of medications used for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis. Infliximab and golimumab are two of the medications can be effectively used for treatment for psoriatic arthritis.

Infliximab is a drug that is very commonly used for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Therefore, it is being used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. However, it is also effective for the treatment of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

Infliximab inhibits the action of TNFα, which is present on the surface of the cells. It is the factors, which exaggerates any inflammation response. Infliximab attaches itself to the TNFα and it makes it dysfunctional. Thus, it can be very effectively used for Treatment for psoriatic arthritis.

It is used in the form of Remicade. Remicade was developed by Junming le and Jan Vilcek who worked at the New York university school of medicine. Today it has been widely accepted by most of the prominent medical organizations. It has also been accepted by the US Food and Drug Administration. It has been found to be effective in most of the cases.

While using it for treatment for psoriatic arthritis, it is administered to the patient through an intravenous infusion. It is administered in the form of small doses. The internal between the successive doses is generally 6-8 weeks. Rhemicide is easily destroyed by the digestive system and therefore this drug cannot be administered orally.

However, the only draw back of Remicide is that at this moment it is a very costly drug. About 100mg of Remicide will cost about $1000. Nevertheless, it is covered in most of the medical insurance plans. Therefore, even the common patients also can get benefited form it.

Golimumub works almost in the same manner as infliximab. However, it is not practically being used yet. Phase 3 clinical trials are going on. It is expected that very soon it will be available in the market. In the United States Schering Plough is the company who is about to market Golimumub as a drug for the treatment for psoriatic arthritis.

Golimumub has some advantages over infliximab. It has found to be more effective. Moreover, the costs are lower. There are some disadvantages associated with both infliximab and Golimumub when they are used for the Treatment for psoriatic arthritis. However, they are controllable. Both of them are actually very good options for the Treatment for psoriatic arthritis.