Comment on: Assessments of the unmet need in the management of patients with rheumatoid arthritis: analyses from the NOR-DMARD registry

In this study, the authors reported a high proportion of MTX-na ïve patients who received MTX monotherapy as having an inadequate response and a large proportion of patients who discontinued MTX therapy, primarily due to a lack of efficacy. In addition, they reported that a significant number of RA patients receiving biologic DMARDs (bDMARDs) as monotherapy or in combination with MTX discontinued therapy over 24 months of treatment. All the above showed that a large proportion of patients treated with MTX as monotherapy or with bDMARDs had a huge gap in RA management and the unmet needs for treatment is very high. The authors justify their results by ment ioning that patients were reluctant to switch or because they were feeling comfortable with the level of disease activity or because they had some concerns about the potential adverse events of new treatment options. Therefore the patients may have remained on the same treatment by choice despite an inadequate response.

Source: Rheumatology - June 6, 2019 Category: Rheumatology Source Type: research