RESEARCH - Many RA patients not getting recommended drugs

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Many Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Not Getting Recommended Drugs,

Researchers Find

ScienceDaily

03 Feb 2011

Many patients with rheumatoid arthritis, a crippling disease that

causes pain, swelling and eats away at the joints, aren't receiving

the much-needed, low-cost medications that can prevent deformity.

Despite medical guidelines recommending that patients receive early

and aggressive treatment for rheumatoid arthritis with these

medications, only 63 percent of Medicare-managed care patients

diagnosed with the disease received any amount of the prescription

drugs, according to a new study led by a researcher from the Stanford

University School of Medicine that will be published Feb. 2 in the

Journal of the American Medical Association.

" Among patients with a true diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, closer

to 90 percent should be receiving treatment, " said a Schmajuk,

MD, a postdoctoral scholar in the Division of Immunology and

Rheumatology and lead author of the study. The study's senior author

is Jinoos Yazdany, MD, MPH, adjunct assistant professor of

rheumatology at the University of California-San Francisco.

Which patients receive these medications also varies dramatically by

their health-care plan, their economic status and where they live, the

study found.

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Read the rest of article here:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110201163916.htm

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