Many painkiller drugs for example aspirin, brufen, voveran, etc. provide quick symptomatic relief of pain and swelling. However in chronic cases though these drugs are used for prolonged periods, they do not provide long term relief. It may be remembered that numerous pain relieving drugs if not taken properly produce numerous side effects especially in the stomach and kidney.

           A special class of drugs are used to treat chronic forms of arthritis, and are called disease modifiers (for example gold salts, salazopyrin, methotrexate, etc.). These drugs are slow to produce relief but can effectively control the disease for long periods of time. These drugs improve quality of life and reduce the requirement of pain killers. But they need special monitoring to avoid side effects.

           Cortisones are very powerful anti-inflammatory anti-arthritic drugs and can produce immense relief. But their use should be restricted to severe forms of arthritis. However, cortisones are notorious to produce side-effects and are probably the most misused and abused drugs in management of arthritis today. Many indigenous formulations, even those available across the counter have been found to contain cortisones. Doctors often dispense cortisones in anonymous formulation to produce quick relief. Such medicines lead to a long term drug dependence for relief and cause serious side-effects and toxicity, affecting multiple systems in the body.