How Can You Help a Patient Worried About Arthritis Treatment?

Ideally patient education is part of the treatment plan for arthritis, says rheumatologist Paula Rackoff, MD. In this video, she describes her approach to those hesitant about a new arthritis treatment.

Transcript

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[BLANK_AUDIO] If anyone's hesitant to embark on a new treatment, I see them more

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often. Especially if I think they need the new treatment. And I try to get them to read literature about their disease, about the

00:21

medications. I ask them to contact the Arthritis Foundation and I start slowly. Unless I feel like their arthritis is progressing

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fast enough that I need to get them up to the speed of the disease progression and to the speed of how I think they should be treated.