The symptoms of autoimmune diseases tend to wax and wane over time. Periods of worsening symptoms alternate with times when symptoms improve, even abate completely. Treatments for autoimmune diseases do not cure the disease — there is no known cure for most of them — but treatment can decrease the frequency and/or severity of symptomatic periods. Many autoimmune diseases also tend to get worse over time, so treatments are also aimed at preventing this decline.

Available treatments range widely depending on the particular disease. Since inflammation is a major contributor to symptoms for several autoimmune diseases, medications that help suppress inflammation improve the symptoms of many of these diseases. Other treatments include things like daily insulin injections for type 1 diabetes, thyroid surgery for Graves’ disease, and synthetic thyroid hormones for Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.