Newswise — The incidence of dementia in patients with rheumatoid arthritis is lower in patients receiving biologic or targeted synthetic disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) than in patients who receive conventional synthetic DMARDs, according to a new study. The study was presented at the virtual annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology.
“Being on a biologic or targeted synthetic DMARD actually decreased your risk of incidence of dementia by 17% compared to patients who were on a conventional synthetic DMARD only,” said lead study author Sebastian Sattui, MD, MS, a rheumatology fellow at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City. The study was done in collaboration with investigators from Weill Cornell Medicine and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Dr. Sattui said that the treatment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis has…