About half of patients with rheumatoid arthritis achieving deep remission will still be stable 12 months later despite their therapies being tapered or ceased, a randomised open-label trial shows.

Furthermore, among those who relapse, switching back on to disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) should restore remission in most cases, the German researchers say.

The findings suggest that patients in remission could be managed more flexibly, thus reducing overtreatment, they added.

Their RETRO (Treatment tapering and stopping in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in stable remission) trial is the first to evaluate three simple strategies for managing patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in stable remission in a real-world setting, the authors reported in The Lancet Rheumatology.