Health technology assessment : HTA
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Health Technol Assess · Sep 2005
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative StudyThe British Rheumatoid Outcome Study Group (BROSG) randomised controlled trial to compare the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of aggressive versus symptomatic therapy in established rheumatoid arthritis.
To examine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of symptomatic versus aggressive treatment in patients with established, stable rheumatoid arthritis (RA). ⋯ This trial showed no benefit of aggressive treatment in patients with stable established RA. However, it was difficult to persuade the rheumatologist and/or the patient to change treatment if the evidence of disease activity was minimal. Patients in the symptomatic arm were able to initiate changes of therapy when their symptoms deteriorated, without frequent hospital assessment. Approximately one-third of current clinic attenders with stable RA could be managed in a shared care setting with annual review by a rheumatologist and regular contact with a rheumatologist nurse. Further research is needed into disease progression and the use of biological agents, minimum disease activity level below which disease progression does not occur, cost-effectiveness through shared care modelling, the development of a robust and fail-safe system of primary-care based disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) monitoring, and predicting response to DMARDs.