Treatment aims to lower disease activity, put RA into remission, and improve your quality of life.
Medication optionsare numerous for treating RA.
Your healthcare provider can recommend the best options for managing RA.
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you’re able to also useOTC topical pain relieversto manage RA pain.
These are applied over painful joints and have fewer side effects than oral pain relievers.
Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions for safe and effective use.
Inform your healthcare provider if you experience side effects, including skin irritation.
Prescription Pain Relief
Your healthcare provider can prescribe more potent versions of oral OTC pain relievers.
A less-potent version of diclofenac, sold under brand names such asVoltaren, is available without a prescription.
Corticosteroids
Corticosteroidslike betamethasone, cortisone, methylprednisolone, and prednisone help reduce inflammation and pain.
They are available as oral medicines and injections.
These medicines are typically not recommended for long-term use.
Non-Biologic DMARDs
DMARDsdecrease inflammation and slow down the progression of RA.
As a result, you experience fewer symptoms and less damage over time.
These drugs work quicker than non-biologic ones and might have fewer side effects.
Biologics are given as injections andinfusion treatments.
These medicines suppress the immune response, preventing inflammation, and stopping joint and tissue damage.
Currently, three JAK inhibitors are available to treat RA.
These include:
Managing RA While Pregnant
It is possible to continue treating RA during pregnancy.
RA stays the same in the remaining 30% of pregnant women.
Some RA medications should not be taken before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and if breastfeeding.
As symptoms and function improve, your provider will adjust medicines or recommend nondrug options for managing disease symptoms.
Assistive devicescan help take the stress off inflamed joints and protect them from injury.
For example, orthotics and braces can ease the pain of RA in your feet.
Many assistive devices are available to help you function when joint movement is limited.
Hot and Cold Therapy
Ice packs and heating pads relieve local pain, swelling, and stiffness.
Cold therapy can bring down inflammation to reduce pain.
Heat therapy increases blood flow to ease joint stiffness and cramping in the muscles around the joints.
you’re free to alternate between cold and hot therapy options as needed.
Stress Management
Stress can make RA symptoms worse.
Otherstress managementoptions include talking to a friend, taking breaks, and relaxing with a cup of chamomile tea.
If you are having a hard time quitting, let your healthcare provider know.
They can give you information about programs and products to help youstop smoking.
Herbs and supplements can interact with over-the-counter and prescription medications.
Also, considermental healthtreatments, such as talk therapy.
Surgery
Surgery is a last-resort treatment for RA that has progressed to cause significant joint damage.
Over time, the tendons weaken, wear down, and can eventually tear.
Synovectomy
Synovectomyis surgery to remove the inflamed synovial tissues lining the joint.
Though this procedure relieves your symptoms, the tissues can regrow.
Then, RA can cause inflammation and pain in the new lining.
As new bone grows, the two fuse into one bone, eliminating the painful joint.
Each person’s treatment approaches for RA are based on disease severity as the condition progresses throughstages.
Disease severity is typically classified as early to moderate, severe, and end-stage.
Treatment options in early RA include NSAIDs, methotrexate, other non-biologic DMARDs, and low-dose steroids.
Your healthcare provider may add a biologic drug or JAK inhibitor to your treatment plan at this stage.
Severe RA
By the time RA progresses to stage 3, it is considered severe.
There might be more pain and swelling.
Does RA Progression Affect Life Expectancy?
RA is generally not a fatal condition, but disease progression and complications of the condition might affectlife expectancy.
The most commonsymptoms of a flare-upare severe joint pain, swelling, stiffness, and fatigue.
A flare-up can last for a few days, or it can last for weeks or months.
Specific events can trigger RA flares.
Consider activities that are easy on the joints, such as stretching, walking, and swimming.
Keep stress levels down while recovering.
Try massage, warm baths, and OTC oral and topical pain relievers to manage pain and reduce inflammation.
Contact your healthcare provider if your flare-up lasts longer than a few days or worsens.
They can prescribe a corticosteroid or other treatments to quickly reduce inflammation and manage symptoms, including pain.
RA Treatment Advancements
RA is a chronic condition without a cure.
Fortunately, you have plenty of options for treating it, and therapies for treating RA continue to increase.
They can share all the potential benefits and risks of changes to your treatment plan.
They can also recommend lifestyle changes and the best ways to improve your outcomes.
Summary
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease without a cure.
Treating RA involves an integrated approach combining nondrug and drug options.
Non-drug options include physical and occupational therapies, lifestyle changes, and CAM therapies.
Drug treatments include anti-inflammatory drugs, pain relievers, non-biologic and biologic DMARDs, corticosteroids, and JAK inhibitors.
Surgery is a last resort for treating severe joint damage due to advanced RA.
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