Arthritis Has Been Traditionally Treated with Drugs

There’s no advance warning when arthritis is going to strike. One day a person is healthy, and the next he’s nursing severe pain in his joints. Arthritis is the generic name for any of 100+ types of disease that damages joints while causing stiffness, swelling, and even permanent crippling. A person with arthritis needs the best treatment possible in order to stop the progression of the disease. There are many things the patient himself can do to take control of his treatment plan.

Selecting the Right Arthritis Drug

The traditional treatment for arthritis has always been through the use of drugs. Drugs are unpredictable. They may work for one person and not the next. With any drug, you always have the chance of adverse side effects. All of these things need to be taken into consideration when choosing a drug to use to treat your arthritis.

The most commonly used arthritis drugs are the NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) which, along with COX-2 selective inhibitors are effective in blocking the activities of the enzyme cyclooxygenase (COX).

The second main group of drugs used in the fight against arthritis are the DMARDs (Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs). This group of drugs has proved to be extremely beneficial in halting the ravaging effects of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis. Although they work slowly, they can effectively stop the progression of the disease as well as further damage to the joints.

Corticosteroids and glucocoricoids are extremely powerful medications which you will recognize more easily by their more common name, “steroids”. Although there is a lot of controversy about athletes using these drugs to bolster their athletic abilities, steroids are proving to be potent weapons for the many people afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, and lupus. Steroids work very quickly to reduce inflammation and swelling and halt further damage to joints and organs.

Steroids are the “big guns” of the arthritis medication world. They are not used on patients unless their conditions become so serious that they can no longer endure the pain. It’s best when they are only used for short periods of time. Since they are administered in very high doses, if they are used for extended periods of time there’s a good chance of serious side effects.

Sometimes arthritis patients progress beyond the range of any of the anti-inflammatory drugs they used in earlier stages. When even steroids are no longer effective in killing the overwhelming pain that wracks their bodies, doctors can turn to narcotic analgesic drugs which help make the patients feel pain-free and comfortable, even though when taking them they also can’t function very well. Still, at this point of their arthritis condition, relief is the bottom line.