Featuring Dr. John Wade, MD, FRCPC

Psoriatic Arthritis Treatment Duration: 2 minutes, 8 seconds

Methotrexate is a medication that we use commonly to treat many types of inflammatory arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis or psoriatic arthritis.

In addition, there are many other immune-type disorders where we use methotrexate, so it’s one of our big arrows in our [inaudible] to treat inflammatory arthritis. Methotrexate can be given two ways – it can be given by mouth or by a subcu injection.

It is one of the interesting medications that is only given once a week. So you can give it on a Saturday morning or a Saturday evening, or Wednesday midday – any time of the day. You want to be consistent from week to week when you take methotrexate.

Methotrexate has been around for a long time now as an extremely effective, and if used properly and monitored properly, an extremely safe medication to treat rheumatoid arthritis and the other types of inflammatory arthritis.

Methotrexate is usually the first line treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and other types of inflammatory arthritis, but there are several other disease modifying agents that one can use either alone or in conjunction with methotrexate.

Those medications include anti-malarials, Sulfasalazine, Leflunomide, Ciclosporin, Azathioprine and some other group of medications that are called “biologics.”

Prednisone is a medication that your doctor may recommend you go on for a short period of time, either a high dose or a low dose, to transition other types of medications. So prednisone is an extremely effective medication – it’s a natural hormone in our own body – and if prednisone had no side effects, we wouldn’t need any other medications.

Unfortunately, prednisone has a whole litany of side effects that your doctor will tell you about, and that’s why he or she will recommend you use prednisone for a relatively short period of time.

Presenter: Dr. John Wade, Rheumatologist, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Rheumatologist