Afternoon everyone, a few questions please. I am not currently using anything medication wise for the P or PsA but am on Citalopram, Imipramine, Robaxin, Tramadol, Pregablin and a statin mainly for my ME. Also I am not currently seeing a dermatologist or rheumatologist. Basically I had given up on helping the psoriasis long term and I’ve just stopped taking Naproxen which was prescribed by my GP for the arthritis.
Having read a lot recently about new meds and meds that can help with both I am going to see my GP and ask for a referral to rheumatology. So my questions:
Do the meds also help with the psoriasis?
What would you recommend medication wise? I was going to ask about Methotrexate injections?
Any advise would be great please. Thank you xx
Hi there, I have just read through your earlier post, and am soo sorry to hear where things are at for you!!
I’m fairly new to this PsA thing, and only ever had very mild psoriasis, but what I can say is that the Methotrexate (I take the pill form) has almost cleared up my psoriasis completely, now I don’t even notice it is there at all, and if a small patch crops up one or two applications of Micreme sorts it out ASAP, I have also found the Methotrexate helps a lot with the fatigue as well (it’s not completely sorted, but I am functioning soo much better).
Initially I would get a tiny little flare of the psoriasis the day after I took the methotrexate, but it settled down within 24 hours, and that only happened for the first few weeks.
If your GP has diagnosed the PsA I’d say try talking to him/her about a rheumy appointment and some medication too… it was a GP that started me on a trial of Methotrexate while waiting to get rheumy appointment.
All the best with all you have going on!! Keeping fingers crossed that you are able to get some treatment and some relief quickly!!
Thanks Janson. I am hoping to get Drs appointment this week so I will ask about the methotrexate while I wait for rheumatology appointment which will takes a few months I am sure.
Thank you xx
The methotrexate didn’t help a whole lot with my P long term. There was definite short term improvement, and at the time I was dx’d with psoriatic arthritis it was fairly mild, except on my scalp. The biologics though cleared it almost immediately. I now only get a small patch here and there occasionally, and my scalp P is really mild now.
Of course YMMV, I think several people have seen more improvement with DMARDs than I have, so it kind of depends on how well you respond to them on an individual level.
Just a thought… when you see your doctor ask him/her about seeing a dermatologist for the psoriasis too… it might be quicker to see a dermatologist (not sure though) and they should know about the PsA too… besides, any relief you can get for anything has to be a good thing, right?
Hi there. I had inverse psoriasis many years ago for a long while. However, thankfully it eventually disappeared for quite some time. Since being diagnosed with PsA I’ve had a big psoriasis flare up, of which inverse was the least troublesome (mine doesn’t hurt as such) but the whole episode was associated with stopping Mtx. Once I went back on Mtx, some 9 months later, the psoriasis which covered much of my body cleared up very rapidly.
It could be that the withdrawal of Mtx triggered my psoriasis, perhaps it would have happened had I stopped any drug. I’ve heard anecdotally that psoriasis sometimes flares for a while when people stop smoking, for example. However psoriasis is treated with Mtx and for me, whatever the mechanism, it seems to keep psoriasis at bay very effectively.
Additionally, when a patch of psoriasis was biopsied during the flare up, the result came back as ‘partially treated’ psoriasis. At the time I was on humira alone. So although Humira clearly wasn’t doing a wonderful job of treating the skin condition, the biopsy suggested that it was doing something!
