This is particularly true with long-term patients, those with severe disease, and those who flare frequently or easily. Dr. James O'Dell, in his Minocycline-RA study, noted that the greatest patient response was seen after one year of antibiotics. There does not seem to be improvement in labs. Patient response and labs do not always parallel. Allow for a lag time between the patient's assessment and the lab results.
Patient response is very individualized.
The dose and frequency which works for one patient doesn't work for the next patient. As in other treatment regimens for rheumatic diseases, each patient is an individual with special responses to medication. The same is true for antibiotic therapy. This can provide an added punch which will elicit improvement as IVs are needed to reach more deep seated disease in some patients. IVs can be particularly helpful in cases of mycoplasma infection as these organisms have been found to colonize the mucous membranes and these colonies are reached more effectively by the more potent IV antibiotics which do not pass through the digestive tract.