Treatment for Osteoarthritis

There is no cure for arthritis. But treatment can help slow or limit the breakdown of cartilage and help you reduce your pain and continue to lead an active life.

The goals of treatment are to:

• Reduce your pain and stiffness.
• Keep your joints working and moving well.
• Keep you from becoming disabled.
• Prevent more damage to your joints.

Your treatment plan may be based on:

• How bad your symptoms are.
• How your symptoms affect what you can do.
• How well other treatments have worked.
• How much joint damage you have.

Treatment for mild to moderate arthritis

In most cases, people who have mild to moderate arthritis can manage their symptoms for many years with treatment. A treatment plan may include:

Pain medicines.

These medicines include acetaminophen and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen or naproxen. Or you may use a topical medicine such as capsaicin cream on your skin.

Physical therapy or occupational therapy.

Physical therapy can help with pain and how well you get around. Occupational therapy helps you live as independently as possible.

Self-care is also an important part of your treatment. It may include:

Lifestyle changes.

• These are things like:
  • Getting enough rest.
  • Exercising and being active. This can help keep your muscles strong and your joints moving.
  • Losing weight, if you're overweight. This can reduce the stress on your joints.
  • Learning and practicing a "good health attitude." It helps you cope with the stress and challenges of living with arthritis.

Assistive devices and orthotics.

These devices can help you protect your joints from injury and take the stress off your joints. They include tape, braces, splints, and canes.

Changing activities or the way you do things.

Changing the way you do things may help you to rest or reduce the stress on the painful joint and allow you to move better.

Heat and cold therapy.

Heat or ice can help with pain. You can try hot compresses, cold packs, ice massage, or paraffin wax.

Treatment if arthritis gets worse

If the pain and stiffness from arthritis don't get better or they get worse, your doctor may recommend:

• Steroid shots in the joint to reduce swelling.
• Pain medicine called tramadol.
• An antidepressant, such as duloxetine, to help relieve pain.
• Opioid pain medicines.
• Physical therapy or occupational therapy.

In most cases, people can manage their osteoarthritis symptoms with medicine and lifestyle changes. But surgery may be an option if you have very bad pain, you have lost a lot of cartilage, or you have tried medicine and other treatments but they haven't helped.

Some types of surgery include:

• Arthrodesis.
• Arthroscopy.
• Finger or toe surgery.
• Joint replacement (hip, knee, or shoulder).
• Osteotomy (knee or hip).

There are many treatments for arthritis, but what works for someone else may not work for you. You may need to try several different treatments to find what works for you.

Experts are testing new medicines and methods that they hope will one day help prevent, reduce, or repair cartilage damage. For example, they're looking at cartilage transplants and the use of stem cells to grow new cartilage. So far, therapies to repair cartilage have only been studied in younger people with small, well-defined holes in their knee cartilage. This isn't a common problem for most older adults who have arthritis of the knee.