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Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs: Overview

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Compendium of Inflammatory Diseases

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Synonyms

DMARDs; bDMARDs; csDMARDs; tsDMARDs; Disease-suppressing Anti-rheumatic Drugs; Slow-acting Anti-rheumatic Drugs

Definitions

Disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) are drugs which decrease the inflammation, slow the damage to joints, and decrease the systemic effects of rheumatoid arthritis and are used or investigated for other inflammatory diseases. There are three major groups: conventional synthetic DMARDs (csDMARDs), targeted synthetic DMARDs (tsDMARDs), and biological DMARDs (bDMARDs).

  • The older smaller molecular mass drugs (e.g., antimalarial methotrexate, sulfasalazine, and leflunomide) make up the csDMARDs. Members of this group are often termed slow-acting antirheumatic drugs (SAARDs) because their actions develop slowly.

  • The newer agents, Janus kinase inhibitors and phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitors, which are low molecular mass, synthetic drugs which were synthesized to target specific processes, are consequently termed tsDMARDs.

  • The bDMARDs which contain...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown Hospital, PO Box 149, NSW, 2560, Campbelltown, Australia

    Kevin D. Pile

  2. Department of Pharmacology, School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, 2010, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Garry G. Graham

  3. Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, NSW, 2010, Australia

    Garry G. Graham

  4. Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Stephen M Mahler

Authors
  1. Kevin D. Pile
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  2. Garry G. Graham
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  3. Stephen M Mahler
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Correspondence to Kevin D. Pile .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst of Clinical Pharmacology Haus 74/75, JW Goethe University Frankfurt Fraunhofer IME, Frankfurt, Germany

    Michael J. Parnham

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Pile, K.D., Graham, G.G., Mahler, S.M. (2016). Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs: Overview. In: Parnham, M. (eds) Compendium of Inflammatory Diseases. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-0620-6_48-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-0620-6_48-2

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  • Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Basel

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-0348-0620-6

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs: Overview
    Published:
    21 April 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-0620-6_48-2

  2. Original

    Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs
    Published:
    12 August 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-0620-6_48-1

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