Rheumatoid Arthritis: Pathophysiology, Treatment, and Patient Education

Rheumatoid
arthritis

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Pathophysiology of disorder with an in-depth discussion of underlying immunological
mechanisms..................................................................................................................................1
Pharmacological treatments detailing how the medications alter the underlying disease process
.....................................................................................................................................................2
Key patient education considerations when nursing a patient with this disorder........................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that can cause joint pain and damage
throughout the patient’s body. The joint damage that RA causes usually happens on both sides of
the body. This disease can affect the well-being of patient negatively. There are various signs
and symptoms which are been associated with the disease. It has been analysed that the person
who are been suffering from it can face fatigue, weight loss, stiffness, pain in joints, slightly high
fever and many more. It can reduce the quality of life of the patients who have been suffering
from RA. The Australian incidence data has provided with the result that around 458000
Australians are been suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. It means that 1.9% of the total
population is been suffering from this disease. The Rheumatoid arthritis is most common in the
people who are above the age of 75. Moreover some set of the RA also appears for the people
between the ages of 45-65. It has also been analysed from the research that the prevalence rate of
this disease is higher among the women which is 2.3% than the male at 1.5%. There are also
various risk factors that have been associated with the Rheumatoid arthritis. It has been analysed
that individual who are obese are at more risk of having RA. Smoking can also be considered as
one of the major risk factor which causes such disease and reduce the quality of life of an
individual who have been suffering from it. Age can also be considered as the risk of suffering
from the arthritis disease. It has been analysed that mostly old age people are been going through
RA. It has also been analysed that sometimes this disease is been caused because of the genes.
MAIN BODY
Pathophysiology of disorder with an in-depth discussion of underlying immunological
mechanisms
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can be considered as an inflammatory disease which causes
intense pain in joints. It can affect the quality of life of an individual who has been suffering
from it. Mostly people of the old age have been suffering from the problem of RA. The etiology
related to this disease has not been identified yet, research is been done on it. The impact of
genetic factor has been obvious (Taylor and et.al., 2017). The pathophysiology is been related to
the abnormal state and the changes in functioning of body system which can be faced by the
patient who have been suffering from the rheumatoid arthritis. The impact of RA lays effect on
the immune system of body; it makes the density of bone lower down. This disease attack the
tissue of the body which causes pain that is unbearable and also the affects the working of joints
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