Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs May Cut Incidence of Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 27, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) might prevent incidence of autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a study recently published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

Kristin Waldenlind, M.D., Ph.D., from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and colleagues examined whether DMARDs, as used for RA, might lower the risk for incident AITD. The analysis included 13,731 patients with new-onset RA identified from the Swedish Rheumatology Quality Register (2006 to 2018) and 63,201 matched controls from the general population.

The researchers found that 2.3 percent of the RA patients and 2.9 percent of the general population developed AITD, corresponding to an incidence of 3.7 versus 4.6 per 1,000 person-years (hazard ratio, 0.81). The decreased risk for incident AITD among RA patients was most pronounced among biologic DMARD-treated patients compared with the general population (hazard ratio, 0.54). Among RA patients treated with biologic DMARDs, tumor necrosis factor inhibitors were associated with the most pronounced decrease in AITD (hazard ratio, 0.67).

"In contrast to the increased prevalence of AITD in RA patients at diagnosis, our results indicate that the risk of AITD decreases following RA diagnosis," the authors write.

Two authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

Abstract/Full Text