Conventional Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs for the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Shannon Hill; Nina Frey

doi:10.51731/cjht.2021.72

Vol. 1 No. 5 (2021)

Health Technology Reviews

Conventional Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs for the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Shannon Hill,
Nina Frey

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.51731/cjht.2021.72

Published May 17, 2021

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Key Messages

Nine evidence-based guidelines were identified that recommend the use of conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs as a first-line therapy for patients with rheumatoid arthritis prior to using biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs or Janus kinase inhibitors.
Methotrexate monotherapy was the most commonly recommended conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug recommended as first-line therapy by the included guidelines.
Eight of the included guidelines recommend combination therapy using multiple conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs if monotherapy is ineffective and 4 included guidelines recommend the use of glucocorticoids in combination with conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.

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