Disease-modifying antirheumatic drug

Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) is a category of otherwise unrelated drugs defined by their use in rheumatoid arthritis to slow down disease progression. The term is often used in contrast to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (which refers to agents that treat the inflammation but not the underlying cause) and steroids (which blunt the immune response but are insufficient to slow down the progression of the disease).

The term "antirheumatic" can be used in similar contexts, but without making a claim about an effect on the course. Other terms that have historically been used to refer to the same group of drugs are "remission-inducing drugs" (RIDs) and "slow-acting anti-rheumatic drugs" (SAARDs).

Although the use of the term DMARD was first propagated in rheumatoid arthritis (hence their name) the term has come to pertain to many other diseases, such as Crohn's disease, lupus erythematosus (SLE), Sjögren's Syndrome, immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), myasthenia gravis, sarcoidosis and various others.

The term was originally introduced to indicate a drug that reduced evidence of processes thought to underlie the disease, such as a raised erythrocyte sedimentation rate, reduced haemoglobin level, raised rheumatoid factor level and more recently, a raised C-reactive protein level. More recently, the term has been used to indicate a drug that reduces the rate of damage to bone and cartilage. DMARDs can be further subdivided into traditional small molecular mass drugs synthesised chemically and newer 'biological' agents produced through genetic engineering.

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