Table 3 Random examples of statements about whether combination therapy is working by 6/18 participants
Treatment is working | Unsure whether treatment is effective | Treatment is not working |
|---|---|---|
Patient with early RA (n = 1 unsatisfied, n = 2 unsure, n = 5 satisfied) | ||
‘I can move easier and some days I do not even remember that I got RA’. (Patient 13) | ‘I would have thought the ‘good’ period lasted 5–6 months, apart from the feet. But the hands, you know, swelling up again, but in the initial stages I’ve got to say it [combination therapy] did help, definitely’. (Patient 3) | ‘When I take the medication I do not feel any change. I feel tired and I am in bed most of the time. If I want to go out sometimes I cannot go, because I am really, really tired’. (Patient 4) |
Patients with established RA (n = 1 unsatisfied, n = 3 unsure, n = 6 satisfied) | ||
‘Stiffness and pain level is much better than it was, and generally the scores [ESR and Disease Activity Score] and the feelings are the same’. (Patient 10) | ‘The treatment is working, I am pain free and do not have so much deformity.. I find it easier to pull myself out of the bath, but there again I have been given a steroid injection, and the steroid does help’. (Pilot Patient 2) | ‘Stiffness and pain are the same since I started the combined treatment’. (Pilot Patient 1) |