Introduction: The aim of our work is to assess the prevalence of probable major depressive disorder and/or probable generalized anxiety disorder (pMDD/pGAD) in patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and to evaluate the efficacy of tofacitinib on RA symptoms stratified by baseline pMDD/pGAD status.
Methods: Data were pooled from five phase 3 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and one phase 3b/4 RCT, assessing tofacitinib 5 or 10 mg twice daily (BID), adalimumab (two RCTs), or placebo. pMDD/pGAD was defined as Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) Mental Component Summary (MCS) score ≤ 38. Efficacy outcomes over 12 months included least squares mean change from baseline in SF-36 MCS score and Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index, proportions of patients with pMDD/pGAD in those with baseline pMDD/pGAD, and American College of Rheumatology 20/50/70 response, and Disease Activity Score in 28 joints, erythrocyte sedimentation rate remission (< 2.6) rates.
Results: A total of 4404 patients with non-missing baseline values were included. Baseline pMDD/pGAD was reported by 44.5%, 39.8%, 45.4%, and 39.1% of patients receiving tofacitinib 5 mg BID, tofacitinib 10 mg BID, adalimumab, and placebo, respectively. SF-36 MCS improvements were greater for tofacitinib versus adalimumab/placebo through month 6, with numerical improvements for tofacitinib versus adalimumab sustained through month 12, when the proportions of patients with baseline pMDD/pGAD who continued to have pMDD/pGAD were reduced. RA efficacy outcomes were generally similar in patients with/without baseline pMDD/pGAD.
Conclusions: The percentage of patients with pMDD/pGAD reduced from baseline over 1 year of treatment with tofacitinib or adalimumab. Effective treatment of underlying RA may lead to improvements in depression and anxiety, based on the SF-36 MCS. Specially designed studies using gold-standard diagnostic tools would be warranted to investigate this further. Video Abstract available for this article.
Trial registration: NCT00960440, NCT00847613, NCT00814307, NCT00856544, NCT00853385, NCT02187055. Video Abstract (MP4 204475 KB).
Keywords: Anxiety; JAK inhibitor; Rheumatoid arthritis; Tofacitinib.
Tofacitinib is a medicine used to treat rheumatoid arthritis (swollen and painful joints). A total of 4400 patients with moderate or severe rheumatoid arthritis who were taking part in tofacitinib clinical trials completed a survey about their general health and well-being at that time. We used their answers to determine whether they were likely to have depression or anxiety. We then looked at how common depression or anxiety was in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and whether having depression or anxiety affected how patients responded to tofacitinib treatment. It is important to note that tofacitinib is not approved for the treatment of depression or anxiety, and these clinical trials were not designed to assess whether tofacitinib improved depression or anxiety symptoms. About 40% of patients likely had depression or anxiety when they started a clinical trial. This percentage decreased among patients who received tofacitinib treatment over a year. Patients treated with tofacitinib showed more improvement in their depression or anxiety than those treated with placebo. Over a year of treatment, tofacitinib improved signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, for example, the number of swollen or painful joints and fatigue. Having depression or anxiety did not change the way that patients responded to tofacitinib. This research shows how treating rheumatoid arthritis symptoms may also improve depression and anxiety symptoms. However, specially designed studies are needed to confirm this.
© 2023. The Author(s).