Kate from the United States asks: Is it normal to just try one biologic for inflammatory arthritis, or should more than one be tried until things feel better?
When it comes to inflammatory arthritis, like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and others, the goal of treat is remission – no pain, no stiffness, no swelling, doing all the things in life that you want and prevent damage. We try to do this using DMARDs – both conventional ones like methotrexate or hydroxychloroquine, or any of our newer biologics. It is relatively common to try some of these in combination to get better effects. It is also common that we need to keep trying different DMARDs – including different biologics – in different combinations until we get it right and you feel better. While we typically only use one biologic at a time, trying more than biologic is very reasonable if the first one does not work. This of course assumes no other side effects or safety concerns because of other health problems one may have.
Posted: August 3, 2026
Tagged: arthritis, biologic, DMARD, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis