Treatment of Early RA: Minocycline in Combination With Methotrexate vs Methotrexate Alone

"Methotrexate Dosing:~1)initial dose of methotrexate for all patients will be 10 mg/week. 2)2 month: dose of MTX will remain at 10 mg/week if full remission criteria are met; otherwise, increased to 15 mg/week.~3)4 month: dose of MTX will remain at its current level if full remission criteria are met; otherwise, be increased to 20 mg/week.~4)6, 8 and 10 month: If the patient has fallen below full remission criteria and is not already receiving the maximum dose of 20 mg/week,dose will be increased to 20 mg/week. If the patient meets ACR 50 criteria prednisone will be tapered by 1mg/month 5)12 month evaluation: End of the blinded portion of the study. minocycline dosage 200 mg"

"Initial evaluation: The dose of methotrexate for all patients will be 10 mg/week.~2 month evaluation: The dose of MTX will remain at 10 mg/week if full remission criteria are met; otherwise, it will be increased to 15 mg/week.~4 month evaluation: The dose of MTX will remain at its current level if full remission criteria are met; otherwise, it will be increased to 20 mg/week.~6, 8 and 10 month evaluations:~If the patient has fallen below full remission criteria and is not already receiving the maximum dose of 20 mg/week, the dose will be increased to 20 mg/week.~If the patient meets ACR 50 criteria prednisone will be tapered by 1mg/month 12 month evaluation: End of the blinded portion of the study."