Articles By Jack Cush, MD
Trends in Psoriatic Arthritis Treatment 2004-2015
Lee and colleagues from Brigham and Women's Hospital have analyzed the last decade of disease‐modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) use in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and found nearly 40% were treated with a bDMARD, along with a decreasing trend in complete DMARD discontinuations.
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Opioid Marketing & Meals Tied to Opioid Prescribing
A current study in JAMA Internal Medicine showed that while US physicians who received no opioid-related marketing payments had fewer opioid prescriptions in 2015 compared with 2014, those receiving such payments wrote for more opioid in 2015.
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Epigenetic Link in Rheumatoid Arthritis to Huntington's Disease
Researchers at University of California San Diego School and the Icahn School of Medicine have found a high-resolution epigenomic landscape of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) that overlaps with that seen in Huntington's disease, suggesting potentially new unanticipated pathways that could be devel
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Ankylosing Spondylitis Women Show Less Durable Responses to TNF Inhibitors
A study from the Netherlands has shown that the long-term drug survival of TNF inhibitors differ between men and women, with women having a lower long-term retention rate compared to men. A single-center, retrospective study of 122 anklylosing spondylitis (AS) patients, analyzed the outcomes of those receiving either etanercept, adalimumab, or infliximab between 2004 and 2014.Nearly 40% were women and most AS patients received adalimumab (59.7%), compared to etanercept (28.9%) or infliximab (11.3%).
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Mortality Predictors in Rheumatoid Arthritis
A population based study from southern Denmark finds excess mortality RF-positive males with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and that employment status and comorbidity were independent predictors of mortality.
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Trump Blasts Drug Makers on the Price of Drugs
Reuter's reports Friday that President Donald Trump blasted drugmakers and healthcare “middlemen” for making prescription drugs unaffordable for Americans.
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The RheumNow Week in Review - Nonadherence and Astronomic Costs (5.11.18)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews highlights, news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.
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New EULAR Pain Guidelines
The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) convened a multidisciplinary task force including health professionals and patient representatives to develop evidence-based recommendations for pain management in patients with inflammatory arthritis (IA) and osteoarthritis (OA).
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Elderly Often Untested for Sleep Apnea
Geriatric patients are at a higher risk for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), yet they are seldom diiagnosed or evaluated for OSA. A recent study shows that 56% of people 65 years and older have a high risk of OSA, but that only 8% were tested for OSA.
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Patients May Not Fill Your Prescription
A new study linking administrative claims and electronic health records (EHRs) shows that nearly 40% of patients fill and take newly prescribed methotrexate (MTX), tofacitinib or biologics. Kan et al set out to estimate the extent and predictors of primary nonadherence in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who received new prescriptions for methotrexate, biologics or tofacitinib.
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