Comparative effectiveness of treatment with the first TNF antagonist in monotherapy the first TNF antagonist plus one conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug and the first TNF antagonist plus two or more conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

摘要

BackgroundRheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients are treated with a mean of 3–4 conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) with or without glucocorticoids (GCs), before the first biologic prescription. The main reasons for change are inefficacy in 30–40 % of patients, and toxicity ≈ 10 %. Thus, they are treated with the first TNF antagonists in monotherapy. The aim of this study was to analyse the csDMARD and GC prescription patterns before and during treatment with the first TNF antagonist, and compare their effectiveness in three groups of patients.