Positive expectations may lead to greater remission rates, improvements in function and quality of life in rheumatoid arthritis

People with different expectations of their rheumatoid arthritis treatment seem to experience varying levels of treatment success, says an international study published in Arthritis Care & Research.
Experts assessed the relationships between patient and physician expectations and outcomes in 3,280 people with rheumatoid arthritis who were treated using golimumab. (This is generally used as an add-on therapy for patients who have failed treatment with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs [DMARDs]).
The volunteers received 50mg golimumab monthly for six months. Both the doctors and the patients rated their treatment expectations at the start of the study and after three months. Altogether, 95.9% of those involved in the study expected golimumab to be better than their current treatments.
Those who had higher expectations tended to be women, young people and have fewer DMARD failures, higher disease activity and shorter disease duration. After six months, those who had the most positive expectations were generally shown to experience more substantial benefits from the use of the drug.
The researchers comment:
“Patients had high expectations for golimumab treatment. Patients with more positive expectations had greater remission rates, improvements in function and quality of life.”

Click here to read the original research.

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Image credit: Mark Freeth