Profile of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: a Descriptive Analysis

HIGHLIGHTS

• Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common autoimmune chronic inflammatory joint disease

• Specialized pharmaceutical services provide access to high-cost antirheumatic drugs

• Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) are widely used in the RA treatment

• Biological DMARDs treatment exhibit a good efficacy but with a high cost

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects many people worldwide and is the most common inflammatory joint disease of autoimmune origin. In Brazil, the treatment for RA is guided by clinical protocols and therapeutic guidelines. This work aims to investigate the profile of patients with RA through the analysis of sociodemographic, clinical, and pharmacotherapy data. A cross-sectional and descriptive study was carried out in the Specialized Component of Pharmaceutical Services (CEAF) in Ponta Grossa, Paraná, Brazil. Patients with RA that received regular pharmacological therapy were included. Most were female, adults between 40 and 59 years old, and exhibited a disease activity score classified as remission. The majority of patients in remission of disease utilized at least a conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (csDMARD) or biological synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (bDMARD) in monotherapy or associated with other drugs. The treatment costs were high, mainly by utilizing bDMARDs followed by csDMARDs. Most patients exhibited adequate control of disease progression, and fortunately, only a few cases of drug-related problems were identified. This profile is associated with the therapeutic guidelines for RA treatment in Brazil. The SUS has an important role in guaranteeing high-cost drugs access by health judicialization and access to multidisciplinary health professionals for patients with RA.

Keywords:
Autoimmune diseases; Antirheumatic agents; Pharmaceutical services; Rheumatic diseases.