Antirheumatic Drugs Health Article

Definition

Antirheumatic drugs are drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

Purpose

Rheumatoid arthritis is a progressive form of arthritis that has devastating effects on joints and general health. It is classified as an auto-immune disease, because the disease is caused by the body's own immune system acting against the body itself. Symptoms include painful, stiff, swollen joints, fever, fatigue, and loss of appetite.

In recent years, there has been a change in attitude concerning the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Physicians now use Disease Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs (DMARDs) early in the history of the disease and are less inclined to wait for crippling stages before resorting to the more potent drugs. Fuller understanding of the side-effects of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) has also stimulated reliance on other types of antirheumatic drugs.

Description

The major classes of antirheumatic drugs include:

• Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs. Drugs belonging to this class bring symptomatic relief of both inflammation and pain, but have a limited effect on the progressive bone and cartilage loss associated with rheumatoid arthritis. They act by slowing the body's production of prostaglandins. Common NSAIDs include: ibuprofen (Motrin, Nuprin or Advil), naproxen (Naprosyn, Aleve) and indomethacin (Indocin).
• Corticosteroids. These drugs are very powerful anti-inflammatory agents. They are the synthetic analogs of cortisone, produced by the body. Corticosteroids are used to reduce inflammation and suppress activity of the immune system. The most commonly prescribed are prednisone and dexamethasone.
• Disease Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs (DMARDs). DMARDs influence the disease process itself and do not only treat symptoms, hence their name. DMARDs also have anti-inflammatory effects, and most were borrowed from the treatment of other diseases, such as cancer and malaria. Antimalarials DMARDs include chloroquine (Aralen) and hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil). Powerful DMARDs include: methotrexate (Rheumatrex), sulfasalazine, cyclosporine, azathioprine (Imuran) and cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan), azathioprine, sulfasalazine, penicillamine, and organic gold compounds such as aurothioglucose (Solganol), gold sodium thiomalate (Aurolate) and auranofin (Ridaura).
• Slow-Acting Antirheumatic Drugs (SAARDs). SAARDs are a special class of DMARDs and the effect of these drugs is slow acting and not so quickly apparent as that of the NSAIDs. Examples are hydroxychloroquine and aurothioglucose.
• Immunosuppresive cytotoxic drugs. This class of drugs is used if treatment with NSAIDs and SAARDs have no effect. Immunosuppresive drugs have a stabilizing effect on the immune system. Since the inflammation associated with chronic arthritis is due to malfunctions of the immune system, use of this class of drugs has been shown to be beneficial for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis as well. Examples are: methotrexate, mechlorethamine, cyclophosphamide, chlorambucil, and azathioprine.