Selected Disorder: Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis is a condition that causes joint inflammation. The disease also causes inflammation in other body organs. Indeed, a rheumatoid disease can damage body systems including lungs, eyes, blood vessels, heart, and the skin. Severe cases of rheumatoid arthritis have been known to cause physical disability. It should be noted that rheumatoid arthritis is a long-term disease whereby its symptoms can come and go. The condition also differs from one person to the other. The cause of rheumatoid arthritis is an area under research because even though infectious agents like bacteria, virus, and fungi have been suspected to cause the disease, none of them has been proven. The common symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis include swelling and pain in the joints, fatigue, depression, anemia, stiffness, and sweating ( Matcham, Rayner, Steer, & Hotopf, 2013) . Less common and rare symptoms of the condition may be weight loss, inflammation of blood vessels, inflammation of the eyes, and rheumatoid nodules.
Types of prescribed drugs
Several drugs are prescribed to treat rheumatoid arthritis. However, it is important to take note that depending on the type and severity of the condition, a doctor may prescribe one or a combination of the drugs. The commonly administered drugs to deal with the rheumatoid disease include abatacept, adalimumab, allopurinol, amitriptyline, asprin, etanercept, infliximab and azathioprine ( Chen et al., 2006 ). All the aforementioned drugs are used to treat rheumatoid disease except asprin, which is used to relieve the pain caused by the inflammations.
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Selected factor: Age
The estimated prevalence of the rheumatoid disease is between 1 to 2 percent. This prevalence increases with age. In other terms, although arthritis may be present at any age, the disease has been known to mostly affect individuals between 30 and 60 years ( Alamanos & Drosos, 2005) . This can be reduced by encouraging people within this age to engage in physical activities.
References
Alamanos, Y., & Drosos, A. A. (2005). Epidemiology of adult rheumatoid arthritis. Autoimmunity reviews . Vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 130-136.
Chen, Y. F., Jobanputra, P., Barton, P., Jowett, S. M., Bryan, S., Clark, W., & Burls, A. (2006). A systematic review of the effectiveness of adalimumab, etanercept and infliximab for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in adults and an economic evaluation of their cost-effectiveness. Health technology assessment . Vol. 10, no. 42, pp. 1-266.
Matcham, F., Rayner, L., Steer, S., & Hotopf, M. (2013). The prevalence of depression in rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Rheumatology . Vol. 52, no. 12, pp. 2136-2148.
