Fear of needles is very common in children and adults. All children get needles through their regular immunizations. Those with medical illnesses or problems will need to get even more needles for injections or blood work. Most children and adults are able to overcome their fears, and it does not stop them from getting [...]
There are many things that can be done to reduce anxiety about receiving needles. For some parents, this means coming up with a coping plan i.e. using distraction techniques, giving the child a sense of control by offering options (i.e., where the injection goes, look away, using numbing cream). If you find that you [...]
Absolutely! Our friends at TREKK have put together this infographic to guide you through helping your child with a needle poke at every age. It also includes information on when/why they might need to get a needle poke, distraction techniques, and other tips!
Getting started with Injections: No one truly looks forward to giving themselves, or their child, a needle. So it’s perfectly normal to feel anxious at first. This guide from AbbVie contains valuable information from doctors, nurses and pain specialists, to help make your entire injection process as smooth and comfortable as possible. Getting started [...]
Biologics used to treat ERA include adalimumab (Humira or biosimilar), etanercept (Enbrel or biosimilar) and infliximab (Remicade or biosimilar). Some patients with ERA have another associated condition like uveitis or inflammatory bowel disease. In these cases, this would affect which biologic you would select in discussion with your health care team. [...]
At this time, most of the research for peptide-based therapies has been in animal models of rheumatoid arthritis with some promising results. More studies are needed in humans to determine whether these are feasible and effective treatments. Typically novel therapies are developed and tested in adults before they are studied in pediatric patients. [...]
Yes, there are a new class of biologics that are oral, called JAK inhibitors. This includes a medication called tofacitinib (Xeljanz) that has been studied in children with polyarticular JIA. These medications will become more commonly used in a variety of diseases, and hopefully more available to children and teens.
At present, it is not known what factors- symptoms, lab tests, or disease type- put a patient at higher risk of flare off medication. Your doctor is the best to evaluate whether the symptoms you describe are due to active inflammation, or perhaps due to other issues.Â
We do not know if taking a biologic treatment for a longer period will influence the chance of a long lasting remission of disease. Each patient is very individual, and other factors, such as type of disease and previous flares, likely have influence over chance for disease remission off medications.
In university it can be easy to get overwhelmed with workload and focus solely on your school work rather than your body. There have been times where I took my medication late, or didn’t listen to my body in order to get work done. Although I thought this wasn’t a big deal, it caused [...]
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