Australian recommendations on tapering of biologic and targeted synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs in inflammatory arthritis

<p dir="ltr">Biological and targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (b/tsDMARD) have been an important advance in the management of inflammatory arthritis, but are expensive medications, carry a risk of infection and other adverse effects, and are often perceived as a burden by patients. </p><p dir="ltr">We used GRADE methodology to develop recommendations for dose reduction and discontinuation of b/tsDMARD in people with rheumatoid arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis (AxSpA) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) who have achieved a low disease activity state or remission. The recommendations form part of the Australian Living Guideline for the Pharmacological Management of Inflammatory Arthritis, an NHMRC-endorsed ‘living’ guideline, in which recommendations are updated in near real-time as new evidence emerges. </p><p dir="ltr">Conditional recommendations were made in favour of dose reduction in RA and AxSpA but not in PsA. Abrupt discontinuation of b/tsDMARD is not recommended in any of the three diseases.</p>