Inflammatory arthritis affects more than 1 in 100 people. It occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks the joints, causing inflammation experienced as swelling, stiffness and pain.
Current medical approaches for inflammatory arthritis largely focus on tackling inflammation, with pain not always being prioritised. This means that people with inflammatory arthritis do not always receive treatments that are appropriate for both their inflammation and their pain.
The Arthritis UK TOPPIA (Targeting of Peripheral Pain in Inflammatory Arthritis) consortium, led by King’s College London researchers, bringing together collaborators from the Kennedy Institute alongside partners across the UK, will combine patients’ lived experience alongside multidisciplinary expertise to achieve precision pain management that addresses individual needs.
When patients are undergoing clinical care, inflammation and pain are often assumed to be interlinked. But for many people, medical tests can indicate reduced inflammation but fail to show whether pain symptoms persist.
This means in some cases someone’s arthritis is classed as in remission, but they continue to struggle with daily pain that impacts their quality of life.