Please note - this EPG Arthritis Knowledge Centre is for Doctors and other Health Care Professionals.

Arthritis is a complex disorder that comprises more than 100 distinct musculoskeletal conditions and can affect people at any stage of life. Arthritis causes joint pain, loss of movement, and inflammation.

Common forms of arthritis include osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis. Both OA and RA are chronic and incurable but respond well to intervention.Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis.

The prevalence increases with age, and most people over 60 years will have some radiological evidence of it. Osteoarthritis is the result of active, sometimes inflammatory but potentially reparative processes rather than the inevitable result of trauma and ageing.Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic symmetrical polyarthritis of unexplained cause.

It is a systematic disorder characterized by chronic inflammatory synovitis of mainly peripheral joints. Its course is extremely variable and it is associated with nonarticular features.

To diagnose arthritis, there are a number of guidelines which outline the classification criteria, as well as tools to assess the patients pain.

There are a variety of treatment options available to help manage the pain and inflammation of osteo and rheumatoid arthritis, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological. It is important to balance the potential benefit against the potential side-effects.

Enter the Arthritis Knowledge centre

What’s in this Arthritis Knowledge Centre?

Osteoarthritis (OA) | Rheumatoid Arthritis | Inflammatory Arthritis | Diagnosis | Pain Assessment | Pain Management | Children and Older Adults | Treatment options | Non-Pharmacological Treatment | Pharmacological | Complementry Therapy | Surgery | Resources: Physicians | Resources: Patients