European Journal of Rheumatology
Original Article

Combined infliximab and methotrexate treatment improves the depressive state in rheumatoid arthritis patients more effectively than methotrexate alone

1.

Department of Rheumatology, Showa University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

2.

Department of Rheumatology, Clini of Katsuyama, Yamanashi, Japan

Eur J Rheumatol 2014; 1: 147-149
DOI: 10.5152/eurjrheumatol.2014.140074
Read: 2636 Downloads: 1342 Published: 03 September 2019

Abstract

Objective: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have a greater depressive tendency than normal subjects, and infliximab is known to provide quick therapeutic effects and to have high bioavailability for RA. We therefore investigated whether the depressive state of RA patients would be improved by infliximab.

 

Material and Methods: The Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) was used to evaluate 34 RA patients before and 14 or 30 weeks after inflixi mab treatment using the SDS and Disease Activity Score (DAS) 28. The SDS and DAS28 results before and after treatment were compared.

 

Results: We also included 42 cases treated with methotrexate as the control group. The SDS decreased in both groups, and the intraindividual vari ability was p<0.001, indicating that the drugs had significantly different effects on the SDS. The DAS tended to decrease in both groups, but the intraindividual variability was p=0.199, indicating no difference between the two drugs.

 

Conclusion: This study is a preliminary study, but the data suggest that infliximab may reduce RA disease activity and improve the depressive state.

 

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EISSN 2148-4279