Psoriatic Arthritis - Other Medical Treatments

Other treatments that are used for psoriatic arthritis include:

Gold

• May be given either
- intramuscularly
- or by mouth
• Oral gold does not work as well as the injectable form

Antimalarial medications

• includes:
- chloroquine
- hydroxychloroquine
• have been used successfully in psoriatic arthritis

Topical Treatments As psoriatic arthritis results from psoriasis itself, the same topical agents used to treat psoriasis may provide relief from some symptoms of psoriatic arthritis. The following is a list of topical psoriasis treatments:

• Calcipotriol and Betamethasone Dipropionate (Dovobet) (Click here to view the A-Detail™ on Dovobet®)
• Topical Calcipotriol/Calcipotriene (Dovonex)
• Topical Vitamin D (calcipotriol)
• Topical Corticosteroids (Diprosone, Valisone)
• Topical Tazarotene (Tazorac)

Physio

Physiotherapy serves as an adjunct to therapy in psoriatic arthritis. Patients should not exercise excessively when the joints are inflamed, but should maintain range of motion in the affected joints. People with back inflammation should routinely do back exercises to maintain normal mobility of the spine.

Surgical - Joint replacements

While it is generally hoped that psoriatic arthritis would be well treated and progression of joint damage be prevented, there are many patients who require joint replacement. In a typical clinic some 7% of the patients underwent joint replacement after about 13 years of disease. The surgeries included hip and knee replacements, small joint replacement, fusion of small joints of the hands. Patient with psoriatic arthritis do as well with joint replacement of the large joints as most other patients. However, small joint replacement is not recommended since patients tend to lose function.