The Inflammatory Arthritis Patient

Information Pathway

Inflammatory arthritis (IA) is the term used to describe a range of conditions - including the 3 most common forms of inflammatory arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and psoriatic arthritis –which affect the immune system. Described as ‘autoimmune diseases’, they each have their own characteristics and can strike at any age. However, what these diseases have in common is that the body’s immune system is wrongly triggered to attack your own body, causing pain, stiffness, damage to joints and, if left untreated, possibly disability. They are systemic diseases which means that they can affect the whole body and even internal organs such as the lungs, although this is certainly not the case for everyone.

The Inflammatory Arthritis Patient Information Pathway is a guide to what information is available and might be useful for you at every key stage of your journey, from first noticing symptoms to specialist care if the disease progresses. We outline information for people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or who think they may have RA, in all 6 steps of the pathway on this site. However, if you think you may have a different form of inflammatory arthritis then the pathway on the Arthritis Research UK website directs you to organisations and information sources relevant at each step.