"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.

The Lancet, Volume 329, Issue 8542, Pages 1108 - 1111, 16 May 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.