RESEARCH - Traditional DMARDs work as well as newer, more expensive ones

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Study: No Benefit to Costly Arthritis Drugs

Traditional Drugs Work as Well as Newer, More Expensive Ones

By Charlene Laino

WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Oct. 21, 2009 (Philadelphia) -- For many people with rheumatoid

arthritis, the traditional, and much cheaper, disease-modifying

antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) appear to work just as well as newer TNF

blockers that target the underlying disease process, a large study

shows.

The findings also suggest that a step-up approach in which patients

are started on methotrexate alone, with additional drugs added only if

needed, may be preferable to immediate combination treatment, says

Larry W. Moreland, MD, chief of rheumatology at University of

Pittsburgh.

Moreland and colleagues studied 755 patients, mostly white women. All

had early rheumatoid arthritis, with an average of less than four

months since diagnosis, and had not yet received disease-modifying

antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs).

The study was designed to compare the older and the newer drugs and to

look at the benefit of starting with combination therapy compared to

step-up therapy.

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Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.webmd.com/rheumatoid-arthritis/news/20091021/no-benefit-to-costly-art\

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