Pharmacotherapy of rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Panacea, or Panakeia, was the Greek goddess of healing and was attributed to have a potion that cures all illnesses and diseases. Being the daughter of Asclepius, son of Apollo and god of medicine, she was venerated in the temple dedicated to Asclepius, in Epidaurus in the northeast of the beautiful Peloponnese. She is also mentioned in the original Hippocratic oath where the physician swears by a number of gods to serve the patients to the best of one’s abilities. Although the quest for a universal cure, an elixir of life, or the holy grail of medicine remains a mythological fictional aspect, medicine has made great progress when it comes to the drug armamentarium available for rheumatoid arthritis. This chapter puts forward the pharmacological management of rheumatoid arthritis starting with a look at the past.