The Physician's Page Vol. In light of this statement, the results of this 4 year followup to the original study are startling to all but advocates of antibiotic therapy.
All patients respond best when treated early.
The study group was destined to have ongoing, aggressive disease with a low rate of spontaneous remission if traditional therapies were used. Patients with early disease respond better to most therapies. However, there may be a window of opportunity early in RA in which minocycline can produce dramatic benefit. Minocycline may need to be continued indefinitely to remain effective. Few side effects and no episodes of dizziness were observed.