title: Combined infliximab and methotrexate treatment improves the depressive state in rheumatoid arthritis patients more effectively than methotrexate alone.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have a greater depressive tendency than normal subjects, and infliximab is known to provide quick therapeutic effects and to have high bioavailability for RA. We therefore investigated whether the depressive state of RA patients would be improved by infliximab.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) was used to evaluate 34 RA patients before and 14 or 30 weeks after inflixi mab treatment using the SDS and Disease Activity Score (DAS) 28. The SDS and DAS28 results before and after treatment were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We also included 42 cases treated with methotrexate as the control group. The SDS decreased in both groups, and the intraindividual vari ability was p<0.001, indicating that the drugs had significantly different effects on the SDS. The DAS tended to decrease in both groups, but the intraindividual variability was p=0.199, indicating no difference between the two drugs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study is a preliminary study, but the data suggest that infliximab may reduce RA disease activity and improve the depressive state.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Showa University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Miwa
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Showa University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Airi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nishimi
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Showa University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Shinichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nishimi
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Showa University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Mayu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Showa University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tokunaga
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Showa University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Ryo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yanai
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Showa University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Ryo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Showa University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Kuninobu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wakabayashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Showa University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kasama
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Clini of Katsuyama, Yamanashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Michio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hosaka
keywords: Rheumatoid arthritis; depression; infliximab