RESEARCH - New psoriatic arthritis treatment guidelines include drugs not approved for condition

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New Psoriatic Arthritis Treatment Guidelines Include Drugs Not

Approved for Condition

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Sep 09 - So little high-level evidence is

available to support the choice of treatments for psoriatic

arthropathies that a group responsible for developing modern

therapeutic guidelines has resorted to recommending agents that are

not necessarily approved in the US or Europe for these indications.

The new treatment recommendations, issued by the international Group

for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis

(GRAPPA), appear in the September issue of the ls of the Rheumatic

Diseases.

Dr. T. Ritchlin of the University of Rochester Medical

Center, New York and GRAPPA's Treatment Recommendations Committee,

point out, for example, " Fumarates are neither US FDA nor European

Medicines Agency (EMEA) approved (they are approved only in Germany)

for the therapy of plaque psoriasis, but there is sufficient

high-grade evidence to warrant their inclusion as a first line

therapy. "

Dr. Ritchlin and his colleagues first review the diagnostic criteria

for psoriatic arthritis disease characteristics and organ involvement

and then present the recommendations, graded A to D according to the

strength of the supporting evidence:

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Read the entire article here:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/708641

Not an MD