Use of medications is the main treatment option for the inflammatory disease like rheumatoid arthritis which causes inflammation, pain, stiffness and swelling of the joints and restriction in the mobility of joints when becomes severe. The type of medications to be used depends on the severity of the symptoms, progress of the disease and its effects on daily activities of the patient. Generally, rheumatoid arthritis medications are used to reduce the joint inflammation and pain, to improve flexibility of joints and range of motion, prevent further damage and deformity of the joints and improve daily functions.
Drug therapy for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis is extremely improved to slow the progression of the disease and prevent joint damage. Before using the rheumatoid arthritis medications, it is very important to understand complete medical history of the patient and to know whether the patient is allergic to specific drug. The medications such as salicylates, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, COX-2 inhibitors, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, biologic drugs, corticosteroids and investigational drugs are found to be effective medications to treat this disorder.
The salicylates such as aspirin (Ascriptin, Ecotrin, Ancin) and salsalate (Salgesic, Mono-Gesic) reduce the production of prostaglandins which can cause inflammation and pain of the joints. Children below 16 years having viral infections, people with vitamin K deficiency, liver impairment, bleeding disorder and gout should avoid these drugs. The salicylates may reduce the kidney function and can give rise to severe stomach pain, vomiting with blood, cloudy or bloody urine, swelling around the eyes or in the face and severe rash or itchy skin. However, these symptoms can be overcome by medical treatment.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen, diclofenac, naproxen, oxaprozin and ketoprofen are one of the effective rheumatoid arthritis medications. These drugs block the production of prostaglandins by inhibiting cyclo-oxygenase (COX) enzymes which play a major role in the prostaglandin formation. The people with peptic ulcer disease, bleeding disorders and kidney function impairment should avoid the use of these drugs as they may cause fluid retention and can worsen some conditions such as high blood pressure, liver or kidney impairment. These drugs should be avoided in the last three months of pregnancy.
The disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs such as cyclosporine (Neoral, Sandimmune), leflunomide (Arava), sulfasalazine (Azulfidine) and azathioprine (Imuran) prevent the immune process which enhances the inflammation. These immunosuppressant drugs may cause blood cell or bone marrow toxicity, may affect liver and kidney functions and should be avoided during pregnancy.
The biologic drugs such as abatacept (Orencia), adalimumab (Humira) and infliximab (Remicade) act by inhibiting the key factors such as T-cell activation, tumor necrosis factor and interleukin-1 which can cause the inflammatory responses in the immune system. These drugs can give rise to some side-effects such as headache, sore throat, nausea, fever, rash and vomiting.
Although these rheumatoid arthritis medications have some side-effects, they are found to be very effective to relieve the pain in joints and reduce the symptoms of this disease and enable the patient to do the daily activities comfortably.
