[Activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis].

The controlled data accumulated so far support only subtle alterations in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), mainly at the adrenal level, and particularly in a subset of premenopausal onset women. Consequences of the subtle HPA alterations in RA for the disease development remain unclear. From a broader perspective, the unresponsiveness of the HPA axis to chronic inflammation in RA can be simply considered an ongoing adaptation to chronic disease.