Guest guest Posted August 28, 2008 Report Share Posted August 28, 2008 To those who are newly diagnosed with RA: Please understand that the therapies and treatment strategies for RA have changed a lot over the last few years. Your prognosis is likely to be better than for those diagnosed several years ago. Today, there is much evidence that treating RA early and aggressively will lead to better outcomes. It has been shown that early, tight control of RA with DMARDs can lead to drug-induced and maintained remission. It has also been demonstrated that several DMARDs may be used in combination to achieve remission and then the DMARDs may be slowly withdrawn (induction). In those treated early and aggressively enough, some patients may even experience a drug-free remission after the withdrawal of all DMARDs. Others may be able to maintain their remission using monotherapy. Some researchers and rheumatologists theorize that there is a " window of opportunity " in early RA during which the course of the disease may be favorably altered. What used to be a " wait and see " approach has changed to a much more effective " hit it early and hit it hard " strategy. If there is no doubt you have RA and your rheumatologist is not treating you early, aggressively (DMARDs including the biologics), and aiming for remission (and, even better, for no evidence of disease), please find a new one. Think of early RA as a smoldering fire in a forest. Do you want to put it out completely immediately or do you want to put part of it out and come back to check on it later? -- Not an MD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 28, 2008 Report Share Posted August 28, 2008 thank you for that...I'm newly diagnosed and even though I " filter " what I read and people tell me, it's easy to get discouraged and hopeless. [ ] To the newly diagnosed To those who are newly diagnosed with RA: Please understand that the therapies and treatment strategies for RA have changed a lot over the last few years. Your prognosis is likely to be better than for those diagnosed several years ago. Today, there is much evidence that treating RA early and aggressively will lead to better outcomes. It has been shown that early, tight control of RA with DMARDs can lead to drug-induced and maintained remission. It has also been demonstrated that several DMARDs may be used in combination to achieve remission and then the DMARDs may be slowly withdrawn (induction). In those treated early and aggressively enough, some patients may even experience a drug-free remission after the withdrawal of all DMARDs. Others may be able to maintain their remission using monotherapy. Some researchers and rheumatologists theorize that there is a " window of opportunity " in early RA during which the course of the disease may be favorably altered. What used to be a " wait and see " approach has changed to a much more effective " hit it early and hit it hard " strategy. If there is no doubt you have RA and your rheumatologist is not treating you early, aggressively (DMARDs including the biologics), and aiming for remission (and, even better, for no evidence of disease), please find a new one. Think of early RA as a smoldering fire in a forest. Do you want to put it out completely immediately or do you want to put part of it out and come back to check on it later? -- Not an MD ------------------------------------ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 28, 2008 Report Share Posted August 28, 2008 Thanks for posting this, . These are thoughts my doctor shares with me often but it's hard for me to sometimes repeat it gracefully and in layman's terms to others, like family members. > > To those who are newly diagnosed with RA: > > Please understand that the therapies and treatment strategies for RA > have changed a lot over the last few years. Your prognosis is likely > to be better than for those diagnosed several years ago. > > Today, there is much evidence that treating RA early and aggressively > will lead to better outcomes. > > It has been shown that early, tight control of RA with DMARDs can lead > to drug-induced and maintained remission. It has also been > demonstrated that several DMARDs may be used in combination to achieve > remission and then the DMARDs may be slowly withdrawn (induction). In > those treated early and aggressively enough, some patients may even > experience a drug-free remission after the withdrawal of all DMARDs. > Others may be able to maintain their remission using monotherapy. > > Some researchers and rheumatologists theorize that there is a " window > of opportunity " in early RA during which the course of the disease may > be favorably altered. What used to be a " wait and see " approach has > changed to a much more effective " hit it early and hit it hard " > strategy. > > If there is no doubt you have RA and your rheumatologist is not > treating you early, aggressively (DMARDs including the biologics), and > aiming for remission (and, even better, for no evidence of disease), > please find a new one. > > Think of early RA as a smoldering fire in a forest. Do you want to put > it out completely immediately or do you want to put part of it out and > come back to check on it later? > > -- > > Not an MD > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 28, 2008 Report Share Posted August 28, 2008 You're welcome, . Feel free to forward the information to anyone who needs to read it. Not an MD On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 11:28 AM, megan_hartman <megan_hartman@...> wrote: > Thanks for posting this, . These are thoughts my doctor shares > with me often but it's hard for me to sometimes repeat it gracefully > and in layman's terms to others, like family members. > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 28, 2008 Report Share Posted August 28, 2008 I am a good example of that. My RA started out very bad, but my rheumatologist treated it aggressively from the beginning. I had a rough time for a year or two, but since I've been on Enbrel, I've been doing great! I stay on in the group to offer hope to newbies. We are lucky that with the drugs that are available today. In the past, all that was offered to people with RA was aspirin. Sue On Thursday, August 28, 2008, at 08:50 AM, wrote: > > It has been shown that early, tight control of RA with DMARDs can lead > to drug-induced and maintained remission. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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