Giving patients with rheumatoid arthritis two drugs gives better results than giving either of them individually.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a painful condition of the joints which can lead to considerable disability. Two drugs, etanercept and methotrexate, provide some relief but no-one has ever, till now, looked at what they can do together.
Researchers at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, studied 686 patients with RA, assigning them to either etanercept alone, methotrexate alone or a combination of the two.
After six months, those on combination therapy had better symptom relief than those on the individual drugs.
And after one year, 35 per cent in the combination group enjoyed complete remission, compared to 16 per cent in the etanercept group and 13 per cent in the methotrexate group.
What is more, radiography showed that joint destruction was reduced for those in the combination group, compared to those in the individual therapy groups.
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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a painful condition of the joints which can lead to considerable disability. Two drugs, etanercept and methotrexate, provide some relief but no-one has ever, till now, looked at what they can do together.
Researchers at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, studied 686 patients with RA, assigning them to either etanercept alone, methotrexate alone or a combination of the two.
After six months, those on combination therapy had better symptom relief than those on the individual drugs.
And after one year, 35 per cent in the combination group enjoyed complete remission, compared to 16 per cent in the etanercept group and 13 per cent in the methotrexate group.
What is more, radiography showed that joint destruction was reduced for those in the combination group, compared to those in the individual therapy groups.
FOLLOW US:http://www.facebook.com/PlaneHealth https://twitter.com/PlaneHealth
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