Welcome to the LEADER Trial
Full study title: The clinical and cost effectiveness of oraL vErsus intrAmuscular glucocorticoiDs in rhEumatoid aRthritis.
What is the purpose of the study?
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) causes joint pain and swelling which affects people’s day to day activities and quality of life. Treatment for rheumatoid arthritis usually involves medicines called disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) such as methotrexate. DMARDs help to stop rheumatoid arthritis from getting worse, however they can take up to six months to fully work.
Whilst waiting for DMARDs to work, patients are offered treatment with steroids which act quickly to control the symptoms. These steroids can be given as an injection into the muscle “intra-muscular” or as daily tablets which need to be swallowed. Although steroids are good at controlling symptoms of RA, they should not be taken long term, and they can cause side-effects.
Doctors currently do not know whether it is better to give steroids for rheumatoid arthritis as an intra-muscular injection or as tablets and what dose (amount) of these steroids is best to use. The LEADER study is comparing different doses of steroids which may be given either as a one-off injection or tablets taken daily for either 4 or 6 weeks to see which is better at controlling the disease.
