Difference between Psoriatic and Rheumatoid Arthritis

… Continued …

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA)	Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
It is associated with the abnormality of immune system, and also linked to psoriasis. PsA usually occurs after psoriasis, but it can appear before psoriasis in a few cases.	RA is also thought as an autoimmune disease, but it is not linked to psoriasis.
It can cause joint problems on both sides /only one side of the body. It tends to cause swollen toes & fingers, lower back pain, and foot pain. And the symptoms may occur together with the symptoms of psoriasis.	Though the symptoms of PsA often resemble those of RA, but RA is more likely to affects joints on both sides of the body.
In PsA, RF ‘rheumatoid factor’ is usually not found in blood test.	On the other hand, RF is an antibody that can be found in people with rheumatoid arthritis.
It can affect people of all ages. But it is often found in adults with the ages of 30 and 50.	It is more likely to occur between the ages of 40 and 60.
There is no clearly evidence whether gender can have an effect on the risk.	Gender can have an effect on the risk of developing the problem. In fact, RA is more common in women than in men
Having psoriasis can be significant risk factor of developing PsA.	Again, there is no any connection between RA and psoriasis.

Currently, there is no cure for both psoriatic and rheumatoid arthritis. However, there are plenty of options to help cope with the problem – though both problems usually require lifelong treatment.

At present, the goal of the treatment is not to cure the problem. It is more focused to help control the disease, prevent the complications, and improve the quality of life for sufferer.

A number of medications and lifestyle approaches is available to help reduce the inflammation, ease the symptoms, and eventually also can help improve the prognosis of the problem. With appropriate steps, both PsA and RA can be controlled at a state of when inflammation is very low or gone.

But since there is still no cure for the problem, it’s important to keep monitoring the disease by making scheduled appointments with your doctor. The treatment plan can be adjusted along with the progression of the disease.