Methotrexate and anti- TNF treatments

less effective in people who smoke

Taken from NRAS magazine, New Year 2010

A new study from the Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden found that people who smoked had less response to methotrexate and anti-TNF therapy after three months of treatment. Researchers looked at information on 1,756 people with RA.

Forty per cent of smokers did not respond to methotrexate and the same percentage did not respond to anti-TNF therapy. But for people, who had never smoked, only 28% did not respond to methotrexate and only 25% did not respond to anti-TNF therapy.

This is further evidence that people who have RA should not smoke.