"The concept of Remission-inducing drugs is fallacious"

By Dr Irwin Lim, Rheumatologist

This paper was brought to my attention this weekend.

It's from the Lancet and was published in 1987.

I draw your attention to these results:

• By 20 years 35% were dead. Mortality was often attributable to RA.
• Function declined considerably between 10 and 20 years.
• At 20 years 19% were severely disabled.

The weapons they had available in the fight against rheumatoid arthritis - "gold, chloroquine, steroids, and, in resistant cases, penicillamine or cytotoxic drugs."

Dreadful outcomes.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a bad disease and it's not surprising that in 1987, part of the conclusion was that:

The concept of "remission-inducing" drugs is fallacious.

That's no longer true.

I'm glad things have changed in a big way since the 80s. The knowledge of the disease, the weapons used against it, the strategies we use.

Rheumatoid arthritis can still be a bad disease, but with prompt intervention and the use of appropriate medications, the outcomes are now so much better for us physicians and for our patients.