Over the past 15 years or more there has been a move to more aggressive, disease-modifying drug treatment early in the course of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). In 1998 researchers in Holland (M A van Rossum and colleagues. Annals of Rheumatic Diseases 2007;66:1518–24) reported the results of a 24-week placebo-controlled trial of sulfasalazine for children with JIA of oligoarticular or …