Apparatus and method for treating rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis

A method of treating an inflamed joint of a patient having rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis, comprising the steps of:

• providing a source of radiation and optical means that produces first a converging, then a diverging, beam with a predetermined bandwidth that includes a wavelength range of 640 to 800 nm;
• filtering all wavelengths in the convergent, then divergent, beam that lie outside the wavelength range;
• directing the filtered beam at an epidermal surface transverse to the inflamed joint;
• and
• reducing the joint inflammation by irradiating the inflamed joint with the filtered beam with an incident power of 40 to 200 mW/cm.sup.2 to reduce the inflammation, the irradiation presenting the epidermal surface with a total incident energy.

A method of treating rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritic inflammation in the body of a subject, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing a radiation source that produces first a converging, then a diverging beam with wavelengths having a bandwidth in the range of 640 to 800 nanometers;
• converging the beam;
• filtering all wavelengths outside the wavelength bandwidth while the beam is converging then diverging;
• directing the filtered radiation at the epidermis of the subject adjacent the arthritic inflammation;
• and
• reducing the arthritic inflammation by maintaining the radiation output at an incident power on the order of between about 40 to 200 milliwatts per square centimeter for a time sufficient to provide an effective treatment but not to exceed 150 joules per square centimeter when the output of the radiation source transilluminates the affected soft tissues.