Start biologic DMARDs early in juvenile idiopathic arthritis: study
Disease activity is lower after a year with aggressive combined therapy approach, say researchers
Early aggressive use of biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) is more effective for newly diagnosed polyarticular course juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) than a delayed approach, researchers say.
The authors of a single-centre study of 465 newly diagnosed, DMARD-naïve patients said the early addition of bDMARDS to conventional synthetic DMARDs (csDMARDs) appeared to reduce disease activity by six months.
The study examined the records of patients, aged from 12 months to 19 years, across a decade to December 2018.
The individuals were grouped based on the medication prescriptions in their medical records, with the “early aggressive treatment” group (135 patients) prescribed both bDMARDs and csDMARDs within two months.
