Blogs
Best of 2022: Toss of a Coin - How do You Choose PsA Medication?
When balancing all these disease domains, individual phenotypes, and comorbidities, sometimes treatment decisions can feel like tossing a coin. Fortunately, numerous guidelines have been published to help us do better than tossing a coin…or do they?
Best of 2022: Methotrexate in PsA
Until the publication of the SEAM trial, evidence in the medical literature for the efficacy of the most commonly used drug for psoriatic arthritis worldwide, methotrexate, has been lukewarm at best. Yet we all employ it commonly, either as monotherapy or in combination with biologic or targeted synthetic DMARD treatment. It is inexpensive and widely available, and only modestly toxic.
The Best Prescription
The craziest question that you can ask any doctor is “what is your best therapy for __?”. Crazy, because there are exponential answers, with factored layers that make each decision unique to that doctor. Each doctor has her own cha-cha-cha algorithm to a particular problem. The problem is, we each dance to a different cha-cha-cha tune in the practice of medicine.
From the Archives: Rheumatology Dead Word Cemetery
I recently heard of a secondary school assignment wherein students were challenged to “bury” a word that was no longer useful or appropriate. Their exercise has now evolved into an unofficial RheumNow task force to retire diagnostic terms that have grown into misuse in rheumatology and medicine. How did we decide which words should perish? And by what criteria? Who has the final say?
The Still’s Continua
The concept of a “Still’s disease continuum” that encompasses both sJIA and AOSD is based on the many common clinical, genetic and laboratory features shared by both sJIA and AOSD.
2021 GRAPPA Recommendations - Looking Back, Looking Forward
With the recent publication of the third iteration of the GRAPPA Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) treatment recommendations, it seems to be an auspicious time to reflect on some key considerations that arose during the development of the recommendations, as well as to look towards what the future may hold.
A Domain-Based Approach to the GRAPPA Psoriatic Arthritis Treatment Recommendations
With their publication in June 2022 (1), the 3rd iteration of the Group for Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) Treatment recommendations for Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) may have set a record or sorts.
Toss of a Coin - How do You Choose PsA Medication?
When balancing all these disease domains, individual phenotypes, and comorbidities, sometimes treatment decisions can feel like tossing a coin. Fortunately, numerous guidelines have been published to help us do better than tossing a coin…or do they?
Pregnancy and Psoriatic Arthritis
Patient TS was a 30 year old woman who had been living with psoriatic arthritis for about 18 months. Her symptoms had started about 6 months after the birth of her first child with mild psoriasis in her scalp but increasing joint pain in her hands, wrists, elbows, knees, and ankles.
Methotrexate in PsA
Until the publication of the SEAM trial, evidence in the medical literature for the efficacy of the most commonly used drug for psoriatic arthritis worldwide, methotrexate, has been lukewarm at best. Yet we all employ it commonly, either as monotherapy or in combination with biologic or targeted synthetic DMARD treatment. It is inexpensive and widely available, and only modestly toxic.
