Pharmatherapeutic Treatment of Osteoarthrosis—Does the Pill against Already Exist? A Narrative Review

Abstract

The aim of this narrative review is to summarize the current pharmacotherapeutic treatment options for osteoarthritis (OA). Is therapy still mainly symptomatic or does the pill against arthrosis already exist? Causal and non-causal, as well as future therapeutic approaches, are discussed. Various surgical and non-surgical treatment options are available that can help manage symptoms, slow down progression, and improve quality of life. To date, however, therapy is still mainly symptomatic, often using painkilling and anti-inflammatory drugs until the final stage, which is usually joint replacement. These “symptomatic pills against” have side effects and do not alter the progression of OA, which is caused by an imbalance between degenerative and regenerative processes. Next to resolving mechanical issues, the goal must be to gain a better understanding of the cellular and molecular basis of OA. Recently, there has been a lot of interest in cartilage-regenerative medicine and in the current style of treating rheumatoid arthritis, where drug therapy (“the pill against”) has been established to slow down or even stop the progression of rheumatoid arthritis and has banned the vast majority of former almost regular severe joint destructions. However, the “causal pill against” OA does not exist so far. First, the early detection of osteoarthritis by means of biomarkers and imaging should therefore gain more focus. Second, future therapeutic approaches have to identify innovative therapeutic approaches influencing inflammatory and metabolic processes. Several pharmacologic, genetic, and even epigenetic attempts are promising, but none have clinically improved causal therapy so far, unfortunately.