Abstract
The effect of long term treatment with various immunomodulating drugs for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was retrospectively evaluated by the method of life-table analysis. Four hundreds seventy seven patients with RA in total included 95 cases treated with bucillamine (BU), 84 with sulphasalazine (SASP), 149 with D-penicillamine (DP), 32 with methotrexate (MTX), 103 with auranofin (AF) and 54 with lobenzarit disodium (CCA). The longest follow up period reached to 42 months.
The longer durations of the treatment than average were observed in cases with MTX and DP, on the other hand, the shorter durations were seen in AF and CCA groups. As to BU and SASP, the durations of the treatment were intermediate between those 2 groups.
The main reasons of discontinuation of the drug were the adverse effect in BU and the little therapeutic effect in AF. Some of the discontinuations due to severe adverse effects were seen in groups of BU, SASP and DP.
These results obtained by the life-table analysis were consistent with our clinical impressions on drugs and revealed that the life-table analysis would be useful for the long term comparative studies on the slow acting drugs.
