rheumatoid arthritis patients on the drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) are less likely to develop diabetes.

Such were the findings of a 20-plus-year University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine-led study recently reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association:

The multi-center observational study of 4,905 adults with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) found that relative risk progressively declined by as much as 77 percent after four years of treatment with HCQ, a common antimalarial medication that also is used for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune disorders.

That's right. HCQ is a common antimalarial drug as well.

Also, another interesting finding in this study is that in those arthritis patients taking HCQ but developed diabetes were less likely to need blood sugar-lowering medication to manage their diabetes - ultimately suggesting that HCQ can be useful as a preventive therapy for people with prediabetes.

Results show that HCQ's association with reduction in diabetes risk is comparable or superior to that of a number of other drugs studied in clinical trials for diabetes prevention and treatment, including rosiglitazone, hormones, metformin, acarbose and ramipril.

Find more details from the full report.

[Photo Credit: LUHS]