DMARD - Definition and Overview

Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs is a category of drugs used in many autoimmune diseases to slow down disease progression. Their use was first propagated in rheumatoid arthritis (hence their name) but has come to include many other diseases, such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, SLE, ITP (immune thrombocytopenic purpura) - to mention a few.

Most DMARDS are mild chemotherapeutics but use a side-effect of chemotherapy - immune suppression - as its main therapeutical benefit.

The main drugs in this class are:

• Methotrexate
• Azathioprine

When treatment with DMARDs fails, cyclophosphamide or steroid pulse therapy is often used to stabilise uncontrolled autoimmune disease.