How do steroids impact rheumatoid arthritis?

Sanjay Gupta, MD, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, sits down with Sanford Hartman, MD, to discuss how steroids impact rheumatoid arthritis.

Transcript

00:00

Steroids, not a good idea? Not a good idea as far as treatment of the disease. It is very helpful early on with somebody

00:08

who has rampant, aggressive disease to help suppress it. [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:19

When does a patient typically see someone like you? How long have they had symptoms or something that you now look back and you say, well, you think it was here.

00:27

But actually, it was months ago when this probably started. I would guess that, most of the time,

00:33

I will see a patient with rheumatoid between six and 18 months after they start.

00:39

Patients probably are aware they have something going on within a couple of months. And eventually, they'll go to their doctor. And their doctor will potentially

00:48

try some things first. But they usually are trying things that are helping symptoms. The big bugaboo we find is that the patients

00:55

get put on steroids. Because steroids do make patients feel fabulous. They just don't treat anything.

01:01

They are not treating the disease. So they're masking it. SANJAY GUPTA: Steroids, not a good idea? Not a good idea as far as treatment of the disease.

01:09

It is very helpful early on with somebody who has rampant, aggressive disease to help suppress it before these drugs

01:19

that we use that actually work. Because all of them take four, six, eight, 10 weeks to kick in. SANJAY GUPTA: Is there a harm to using steroids

01:27

long term for the patient? Do they develop more problems later on, even if they feel better in the short term? If that's all they're being treated with, yes.

01:35

The disease keeps progressing. They're merely suppressing the inflammation. So as you know, the inflammation is the end point.

01:43

The autoimmune part is the beginning point. So if you can treat before the immune problem causes a problem,