Women Suffer From Rheumatoid Arthritis More Often Than Men

Women Suffer From Rheumatoid Arthritis More Often Than Men.
Rheumatoid arthritis patients can on the whole look out on forward to a much better quality of life today than they did 20 years ago, renewed research suggests. The observation is based on a comparative multi-year tracking of more than 1100 rheumatoid arthritis patients. All had been diagnosed with the often permanently debilitating autoimmune ailment at some point between 1990 and 2011. The reason for the brighter outlook: a combination of better drugs, better performance and mental health therapies, and a greater effort by clinicians to boost patient spirits while encouraging continued somatic activity.

And "Nowadays, besides research on new drug treatments, digging is mainly focused on examining which treatment works best for which patient, so therapy can become more 'tailor-made' and therefore be more effective for the separate patient," said Cecile Overman, the study's lead author. Overman, a doctoral undergraduate in clinical and health psychology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, expects that in another 20 years, rheumatoid arthritis patients will have the same grandeur of life as anyone else "if the focus on the whole patient - not just the disease, but also the person's lunatic and physical well-being - is maintained and treatment opportunities continue to evolve. The enquiry was released online Dec 3, 2013 in Arthritis Care and Research.

In rheumatoid arthritis, the body's safe system mistakenly attacks the joints, the Arthritis Foundation explains. The resulting redness can damage joints and organs such as the heart. Patients endure sudden flare-ups with warm, swollen joints, pain and fatigue. Currently there is no cure but a classification of drugs can treat symptoms and prevent the condition from getting worse.

Up to 1 percent of the world's residents currently struggles with the condition, according to the World Health Organization. The current study was composed first of all of female rheumatoid arthritis patients (68 percent). Women are more prone to developing the working order than men. Patients ranged in age from 17 to 86, and all were Dutch.

Each was monitored for the sally of disease-related physical and mental health disabilities for anywhere from three to five years following their first diagnosis. Disease activity was also tracked to assess progression. The observed trend: a theatric two-decade drop in physical disabilities. The researchers also saw a decline in the incidence of appetite and depression.

For example, roughly one-quarter of patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 1990 could keep in view to experience anxiety or depression after four years of treatment, compared with 12 percent to 14 percent of patients diagnosed today. While 53 percent of those diagnosed at the study's organize struggled with some tailor of physical disability after four years of therapy, that figure dropped to 31 percent amid new patients, the findings showed. Why? The team suggested that at least some of the quality-of-life leg up seen among rheumatoid arthritis patients could be attributed to an overall plummet in illness activity - and ultimately physical disabilities - during the study period.

This was a result of overall improvements in remedying strategies. But investigators also pointed out that while overall quality of life has gotten markedly better over the years, resolved psychological "distress" has not dissipated as much as the onset of physical disabilities. And this, they warned, argues against picture any clear cause-and-effect conclusions based on the current analysis.

That said, "pharmacological poison treatment has improved a lot. And treatment has become more intense. To keep sore and disease progression to a minimum, patients start medication as soon as possible, are monitored more frequently and medications are combined for optimal efficacy. Furthermore, efficacious new anti-inflammatory drugs have become available, such as the biologic agents".

She added that non-medication treatments - including employment therapy and a form of counseling known as cognitive behavioral psychoanalysis - have also been shown to help. The bottom line is: "Today, rheumatoid arthritis patients have a better moment of living a valued life than patients diagnosed with this autoimmune complaint two decades ago". Dr John Hardin - vice president for delving at the Arthritis Foundation, and a professor of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City - wholeheartedly agreed.

So "Today we have a unimpaired new series of drugs that have changed the boldness of the disease. all very good drugs. So the challenge now is to find the thoroughgoing drug for the right patient". Hardin said his foundation is focused on helping to develop tools and techniques that show beforehand which hallucinogen is best for which patient, to better tailor treatments. "And I'm very optimistic customary forward given the new powers of biomedical research, and genetics link. I think we have every reason to allow that even better treatments will continue to come along, and we'll know better and better just how to apply those treatments".