Advances in antiarthritic therapeutics

The number of drugs used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis has increased over the past 10-20 years, but there is still an urgent need for more specific modalities with reduced side effects. The currently available drugs treat the symptoms but do not affect the underlying disease. In spite of side effects, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are still the first-line therapy, but more physicians are using disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs earlier in the disease and combination therapies are also being investigated. New therapies that focus on specific molecular or cellular targets are now in clinical trials and hold promise for the future treatment of this disease.