How long does it take for rheumatoid treatments to kick in?
Before we ask how long does it take for rheumatoid medications to kick in, you first need to make sure you are on the right treatments for rheumatoid arthritis. The consensus for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis NOW are the DMARDs, the disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, whether these are conventional DMARDs or biological DMARDs. You can check my videos on those 2 types of medication families.
You cannot be on painkillers only or cortisone only or herbal preparations and then ask how long does it take for rheumatoid treatments to kick in?
Having made that clarification, now let’s answer this video’s question: well, most medications start to make an improvement in your symptoms within like 6 to 8 weeks. This might be a little bit more with some medications like plaquenil and might be a little bit less with others like most biological medications.
It’s important to also note here that if you did not improve on a given rheumatoid medication which might require increasing the doses of that medication, you don’t have to wait for another 8 weeks for that medication to kick in this time. It might be as little as 3 to 4 weeks only in that case.
So, conclusion here, if you saw your doctor, and he prescribed medications for your rheumatoid arthritis, and you did not improve on those medications within 3 weeks, this dost not mean that your medication did not work for you. It only means your medication has not yet started to work for you. Just be patient and hopefully good improvement in your joints is still coming on the way.
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This post was prepared and published by Dr. Hatem Eleishi. Dr. Hatem Eleishi is a professor of rheumatology at Cairo university (Egypt) and is especially dedicated to supporting arthritis patients with online educational videos and articles about arthritis causes and treatment. He also runs a rheumatology clinic in Cairo and a center for online medical consultations that, in addition to providing online rheumatology consultations, also provides online medical consultations in several different medical specialties by expert consultants from Egypt, Canada and the United States.
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