British Journal of Rheumatology 1989;28:93-97 EDITORIAL DRUG THERAPY IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS—

IN an era of exploding biotechnology, which has had a profound impact on the treatment of other disorders, the management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has retained its familiarity even for the most mature cohort of clinical rheu-matologists. With the goals of relieving pain and enhancing function, we employ various con-servative measures and analgesic-anti-inflam-matory drugs. These now include a vast array of new agents which may be more acceptable and better tolerated than traditional salicylate therapy but clearly much more expensive and not particularly more efficacious. Since the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been developed by screening likely candi