Treating PsA

Treating PsA

Dr. Marina Kang
General Practitioner

Psoriatic arthritis I refer to the rheumatologist for a similar reason where the symptoms may be a little bit more vague and they may not be diagnostically obvious so I refer to the rheumatologist to get a more specific diagnosis and to also start them on the best treatment available to them.

Dr. Mona Marabani
Rheumatologist
President, Australian Rheumatology Association

Psoriatic arthritis is a little bit more difficult to characterise in terms of treatment because it can affect various parts of the body. It can affect the joints of the limbs or it can affect the spine, and so how you manage it depends a little bit on the pattern of psoriatic arthritis that you have.

Dr. Irwin Lim
Rheumatologist

In psoriatic arthritis, the choice of treatment is very much dependent on how the patient presents. So, for example, if they present with one knee that’s very swollen, the treatment might be putting a needle into the knee, sucking out the fluid, and giving some cortisone to settle the inflammation. If it’s relatively mild joint ache or stiffness, it might be a simple ant-inflammatory medication. If it’s more widespread or more severe or causes more discomfort and reduction in the ability to do things, we may need to introduce a disease-modifying agent such as methotrexate.

Dr. Mona Marabani
Rheumatologist
President, Australian Rheumatology Association

A lot of times it’s treated pretty much like rheumatoid arthritis so you may go through a phase of anti-inflammatory therapy, sometimes a little bit of corticosteroid therapy and then biologic therapy if those things fail.