An Overview of Ankylosing Spondylitis Medications
Many medicines are available to treat
ankylosing spondylitis. Some are used only for pain relief or to improve stiffness; others are used to reduce inflammation. Still other medications are used to try to slow down the course of the disease.
There are a number of important considerations that a healthcare provider should take into account when prescribing ankylosing spondylitis medications. Some of these considerations include:
- The person's general condition
- The current and predicted severity of the illness
- The length of time the person will take the medicine
- The medicine's effectiveness and potential side effects.
Based on these factors, your healthcare provider will consider an assortment of medicines from several different classes of drugs. A few of these drug classes include:
- Analgesics (pain relievers), including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
- Corticosteroids
- Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs)
- Biologic response modifiers (specifically TNF inhibitors).
Because people can respond to medicine differently, your healthcare provider may have to try several different ones before finding a medicine that works for you. It is also possible that you may need to take more than one type of drug for ankylosing spondylitis.
