Longterm treatment with nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs in rheumatoid arthritis: a prospective drug survival study.

The longterm use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAID) was studied in a consecutive sample of 148 patients with recently diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis. A survival analysis was done in which treatment terminations due to side effects and to insufficient therapeutic effect were used as index causes. Cumulative drug 'survival' of indomethacin with treatment terminations due to untoward reactions as endpoints was significantly less compared to naproxen and diclofenac (p less than 0.001). No significant difference with termination due to lack of efficacy as index cause was observed (p greater than 0.90). No influence of sex or age on the drug survival with the different endpoints mentioned above could be established.