Historically, treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been conservative and symptom or patient-complaint oriented. Newer approaches use disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), sometimes known as slow-acting antirheumatic drugs (SAARDs), to slow the progression of the disease earlier in its course. Some of these drugs may be used as initial therapy and some may be used in combinations to reduce the side effects or adverse reactions.
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