Therapy with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) should be started as soon as the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is made. [1]The early use of DMARDs has been recommended in recent years to reduce disease progression and long-term disability. [2]The need for early use of DMARDs is incorporated in new National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance. [3]Early u...

Triple combination therapy with hydroxychloroquine, sulfasalazine, and methotrexate (MTX) has been shown in double-blind, placebo-controlled studies to be significantly superior to MTX alone (Paulus 50% responses of 77% versus 33%). In long-term follow-up studies, this therapy has now been shown to be well-tolerated with continued efficacy in the majority of patients.

OBJECTIVES Current UK management of RA initially employs conventional DMARDs, with biological therapy reserved for DMARD-resistant RA patients with persistently high 28-joint disease activity score (DAS-28). The aim of this study was to examine the effect on patient-reported function of persistently moderate DAS-28 despite modern step-up DMARD therapy in an early arthritis cohort. METHODS Dat...

There are now eight approved biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs), two biosimilars and one targeted synthetic DMARD in Australia with a number of new products and biosimilars in the pipeline. bDMARDs have excellent efficacy, especially when combined with traditional DMARDs, and a well characterised but manageable safety profile. These expanded therapeutic options have revo...

Early referral (at <3 months) and early DMARD treatment enable the course of RA to be changed. Once the disease has become aggressive it is much harder to treat and improvements will not be as great as they would have been with earlier treatment. The latest strategies and treatments enable remission to be achieved in many more patients than formerly.

OBJECTIVES To present an updated overview of tight control studies with a fixed treatment target ('treat-to-target'), reporting on (sustained) remission in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS A search of the electronic databases Medline (PubMed), Embase and Cochrane was performed in July 2012 to identify trials and studies addressing tight control with treat-to-target reporting on (sustained) ...

PURPOSE This study compared a new adult stuttering treatment program (Modifying Phonation Intervals, or MPI) with the standard of care for reducing stuttered speech in adults (prolonged speech). METHOD Twenty-seven adults who stutter were assigned to either MPI or prolonged speech treatment, both of which used similar infrastructures. Speech and related variables were assessed in 3 within-cli...