Diagnosis and Treatment of Lupus

While currently there is no cure for lupus, early diagnosis and proper medical treatment can significantly help control the disease. In fact, for most people with lupus, effective treatment can minimize symptoms, reduce inflammation and pain, help maintain normal functions, and stop the development of serious complications.

Just as the symptoms of lupus vary from one individual to another, its treatment is tailored to the different specific problems that arise in each person. The physician will take into account the seriousness and severity of the symptoms and organs involved, the person’s response to treatment as well as her/his age, health, and lifestyle, and the types and risks of potential side effects from the drugs.

The Health Care Team
For mild cases of lupus, when there is little disease activity and no major organ involved, treatment may be managed by a primary care doctor, such as a pediatrician, for children and teens, a family practitioner, or an internal medicine physician, for adults. However, when lupus is active and the person needs to be watched for complications, he or she should be under the care of a specialist, usually a rheumatologist (a physician specially trained to treat musculoskeletal and joint disease).

If lupus has caused damage to a particular organ, other specialists will be consulted as well: a dermatologist for cutaneous lupus (skin disease), a cardiologist for heart disease, a nephrologist for kidney disease, a neurologist for nervous system involvement, and others as the clinical findings require. An obstetrician or perinatologist who specializes in high risk pregnancies will also be needed when a woman with lupus is considering a pregnancy.

Deciding Which Medications to Prescribe
Doctors use a variety of effective medicines to treat their patients. Some of the medications reduce inflammation which causes pain, fever and swelling, while others suppress the overactive immune system. They range in strength from mild to extremely potent, and often several of these medicines are used in combination to control the disease. However, all medications have side effects that need to be monitored.

Although most of the medicines discussed here have not been specifically approved for use in lupus, all appear to be safe and effective for the treatment of symptoms experienced by people with lupus, and have been successfully used for years by doctors in treating their lupus patients.

It is important to note that the medications chosen by physicians to treat lupus will be based on each person’s individual symptoms. These medications prescribed typically change during a person’s lifetime with lupus. It can take months, and sometimes years, before the health care team finds just the right combination of medicines to keep lupus under control.