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Query: UMLS:C0015672 (fatigue)
 51,768 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Musculoskeletal pain in the elderly is common and disabling. As the conditions causing rheumatic pain, including osteoarthritis, inflammatory arthritis and soft-tissue conditions such as tendonitis and bursitis, are, for the most part, not curable, pain control is paramount in order to maintain quality of life. Pain management should be multimodal and tailored to the individual patient, and will likely include a combination of both nonpharmacological and pharmacological interventions. Nonpharmacological treatments begin with education of the patient, encouragement to practise self-management strategies and attention to healthy life habits such as weight control and regular physical activity and exercise. Advice in this regard may be effectively given by healthcare professionals other than physicians. Although herbal products and nutritional supplements are commonly used by patients, studies of their efficacy and safety, especially in the elderly, are limited. In contrast, topical applications, and in particular those containing NSAIDs, are being used more frequently, are associated with fewer adverse effects than oral preparations and offer a new and safer treatment alternative. Similarly, intra-articular and soft-tissue injections of corticosteroids provide an easy and cost-effective option for symptom relief with minimal risk. The use of any pharmacological agent in the elderly should be tempered with caution regarding increased sensitivity to medications, drug-drug interactions and associated co-morbidities. Therefore, the elderly will often require down-adjustment of dosage and careful attention to the risk/benefit ratio of the treatment. There is, however, no single ideal pain medication for management of rheumatic pain. The four broad categories of treatments, namely simple analgesics (i.e. paracetamol [acetaminophen]), NSAIDs, stronger analgesics (i.e. opioids) and adjuvant drugs, each have unique and particular concerns regarding their adverse effect profiles. The continued use of any medication should also be repeatedly assessed to ensure that efficacy is maintained. Throughout the treatment period, physicians must remain vigilant for emergent adverse effects. Patients and physicians should have realistic outcome goals for effective rheumatic pain management. Although complete pain relief is seldom achieved, modulation of pain and the associated components of sleep disturbance, fatigue and mood disorder will improve overall quality of life in the elderly. However, barriers to effective pain management from both the patient and the healthcare professional perspectives still exist, and will be overcome only by educational efforts. Successful rheumatic pain management in the elderly should begin with an accurate diagnosis by the physician, and patients must be realistic in their expectations. Treatments should be multimodal, with attention given to the co-morbidities of pain as well as the global health status of the patient. Whether or not an outcome is favourable should be determined not only by the treatment's impact on pain but also by its capacity to improve function and enhance quality of life. The wider range of treatment options now available is both useful and encouraging for the physician managing musculoskeletal aches and pain in the elderly.
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PMID:Management of chronic arthritis pain in the elderly. 2052 7

New treatment options constitute unmet needs for patients diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Inhibition of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway by sirolimus, a drug approved and in clinical use to prevent transplant rejection, has shown promising effects in lupus animal models as well as in patients with both antiphospholipid syndrome and SLE. Sirolimus inhibits antigen-induced T cell proliferation and increases the number of circulating regulatory T cells. Recently, sirolimus was tested in an open label phase 1/2 trial, including 43 patients with active SLE, resistant or intolerant to conventional medications. The results were encouraging showing a progressive improvement, including mucocutaneous and musculoskeletal manifestations. At our university unit, we have more than 16 years' experience of sirolimus as treatment for non-renal manifestations of SLE. Herein, we retrospectively evaluated data on tolerance, dosage, affected organ systems, disease activity measures, corticosteroid reduction, concomitant immunosuppressive therapies, and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) such as pain intensity, fatigue, well-being and quality-of-life (QoL) in 27 Caucasian patients with mildly active SLE. Musculoskeletal manifestation was the main reason for sirolimus treatment followed by skin involvement and leukocytopenia. Mean time on sirolimus was 47.1 (range 2-140) months. Decreasing global disease activity was observed, as measured by the clinical SLE disease activity index-2000, with a mean reduction of 2.5 points (range -10 to 0) and a corresponding mean reduction of the physician's global assessment (0-4) of 0.64 (range -2 to 0). The mean daily dose of corticosteroids (prednisolone) was reduced by 3.3 mg (-12.5 to 0). Non-significant trends toward improvements of QoL and pain intensity were found. Serious side-effects were not seen during sirolimus treatment, but early withdrawal due to nausea (n = 4) and non-serious infections (n = 2) appeared. This observational study, including longtime real-life use of sirolimus in SLE, is the largest to date and it essentially confirms the results of the recent phase 1/2 trial. Our data indicate that sirolimus is efficient in patients with musculoskeletal SLE manifestations, particularly arthritis and tendinitis. Further randomized controlled trials evaluating the potential benefits of sirolimus in SLE are warranted, but should aim to enroll patients with shorter disease duration, less accrued damage, and more diverse ethnicities.
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PMID:Clinical Experience of Sirolimus Regarding Efficacy and Safety in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. 3078 78


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