Do rheumatoid patients need to be treated with biological drugs?

Do rheumatoid patients need to be treated with biological drugs?

Do rheumatoid patients need to be treated with biological drugs?  The use of biological drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis has specific indications and must be strictly followed~

There is a 62-year-old lady who is a patient with rheumatoid arthritis. In the past two decades, her condition has been recurrent and she has almost used many anti-rheumatic drugs including hormones.

Recently, a friend of the patient said that biological preparations are effective in treating rheumatoid arthritis. This lady came to the rheumatology department for treatment and hoped to continue the treatment with biological preparations, but the doctor did not recommend her to do so.

Why is this?

Today we will learn about the knowledge of biological drugs for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

1 Why can biological drugs treat rheumatoid arthritis?

Biological drugs are a collective term for a class of drugs, which are manufactured using modern biotechnology and can be used for the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases.

Insulin, which is well-known for the treatment of diabetes, is a biologic drug.

Biological preparations for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis mainly target inflammatory factors or pathways closely related to the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis, such as tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6 and so on.

By inhibiting the production of these inflammatory factors or interfering with the function of inflammatory pathways, it plays a therapeutic role, thereby improving joint symptoms and controlling the progression of rheumatoid arthritis.

2 Compared with traditional synthetic anti-rheumatic drugs, what are the advantages of biological agents in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis?

Compared with traditional synthetic anti-rheumatic drugs, biological agents are more accurate in treating rheumatoid arthritis, because they mostly target a specific inflammatory factor or pathway, which enables biological agents to exert therapeutic effects in a shorter period of time .

In clinical practice, we can also see patients taking traditional synthetic anti-rheumatic drugs to improve their condition. Some have clear therapeutic effects and few adverse drug reactions, while some have no therapeutic effects, and adverse drug reactions are more obvious.

But for rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with biological agents, most of them can show obvious effects, with relatively few adverse drug reactions.

3 Which rheumatoid arthritis patients need to use biological agents?

The current more authoritative rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis and treatment guidelines suggest that for patients who have been clearly diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, if they have received one or more traditional synthetic anti-rheumatic drugs for 3 months, but the condition is still If it cannot be effectively controlled, biological agents can be added or replaced.

In addition, patients with early rheumatoid arthritis who have a disease course of less than 6 months but have high disease activity and multiple adverse prognostic factors can also be treated with biological agents first.

This shows that the use of biological agents to treat rheumatoid arthritis has specific indications and must be strictly followed.

Although Aunt Zhang is a patient with a clear diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, her condition is relatively stable after receiving traditional synthetic anti-rheumatic drugs to improve her condition and does not meet the indications for the use of biological agents, so the doctor does not recommend her to be treated with biological agents.

(source:internet, reference only)

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