TY - JOUR T1 - Methotrexate for rheumatoid arthritis JF - Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin JO - Drug Ther Bull SP - 17 LP - 19 DO - 10.1136/dtb.1995.33317 VL - 33 IS - 3 A2 - , Y1 - 1995/03/01 UR - http://dtb.bmj.com/content/33/3/17.abstract N2 - Relevant BNF section: 10.1.3Treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) conventionally starts with an analgesic plus a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). Slow-acting antirheumatic drugs are being added at an increasingly early stage of the disease.1 When we reviewed slow-acting antirheumatics two years ago1 methotrexate had only recently been licensed in the UK for the treatment of RA. In the USA methotrexate is often preferred to traditional slow-acting antirheumatics such as gold, sulphasalazine and penicillamine. We examine the evidence. ER -