Paroxetine Safety and Efficacy in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Phase 3

Recruiting

• Conditions: Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Interventions: Drug: Methotrexate; Drug: Paroxetine

• Registration Number: NCT06231745
• Lead Sponsor: Mostafa Bahaa

Brief Summary

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic chronic auto-inflammatory disorder which imposes a remarkable burden of morbidity and mortality on global health. The complex interaction between genetics, environment, and immunological response contribute to RA pathogenesis. Current treatment comprises conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) followed by biological DMARDs, if necessary, to achieve low disease activity or remission. Therapeutics used in RA had limitations in tolerability, access, and response duration and magnitude. Consequently, implementation of safe adjunctive treatment for RA is urgently needed to boost the therapeutic response.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2024-01-20
• Study First Submitted QC: 2024-01-20
• Study First Posted: 2024-01-30
• Study Start: 2024-01-31
• Status Verified: 2025-04
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-04-05
• Last Update Posted: 2025-04-08
• Primary Completion: 2026-02-20
• Study Completion: 2026-02-20

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 100

Inclusion Criteria

• Aged 23-57 years fulfilling 2010 American College of Rheumatology - European League against Rheumatism (ACR-EULAR) classification criteria for RA (12) and had active inflammatory RA with no limit in disease duration.
• Patients received MTX, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors, acetaminophen, and low dose of oral corticosteroids will be allowed to enroll the trial
• Intravenous, intra-articular or intramuscular corticosteroids; intra-articular hyaluronate sodium; biological DMARDs; and other DMARDs will not be permitted less than 4 weeks before the first dose of paroxetine.

Exclusion Criteria

• patients refusing to give informed consent, diabetes, congestive heart failure, previous adverse reaction to paroxetine, oral prednisolone greater than 10 mg/day, receiving biological DMARDs, severe anemia, active infection, pregnancy or lactation, and clinically significant renal or hepatic disease.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
control group	Methotrexate	group one (control group): 50 patients will receive the conventional DMARDs therapy (methotrexate 7.5 mg IM once weekly) plus placebo tablets
Comparative group	Methotrexate	50 patients will receive the conventional DMARDs therapy (methotrexate 7.5 mg IM once weekly) plus 20 mg paroxetine daily
Comparative group	Paroxetine	50 patients will receive the conventional DMARDs therapy (methotrexate 7.5 mg IM once weekly) plus 20 mg paroxetine daily

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The primary efficacy end point will be the change in the 28-joints disease activity score (DAS28).	3 months	A DAS28 value of greater than 5.1 indicates high disease activity. The values of 3.2 \< DAS28 ≤ 5.1 and DAS28 ≤ 3.2 are indicative of moderate and low disease activities, respectively. If DAS28 value is less than 2.6, the patients may be considered to be in remission phase

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Mostafa Bahaa; 🇪🇬 Damietta, New Damietta, Egypt