Does Methotrexate help PsA? Study says no. What do you think?

Pabu!!! Sorry you’re still struggling, but it is GREAT to see you back. Has spring come to your lovely island yet?

Seenie

Flow! What a nice surprise to have you pop in. How are those boys of yours? And how are those joints?

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Suzanne, what a nice surprise to see you come back. Don’t disappear again: hang in there and hang out here!

Seenie

Hi Seenie, yes…I know I disappeared for a while. Life got crazy busy, job changes, moves, …just a lot going on. I would pop in once in a while and read up, but haven’t posted in a very very long time. Things have slowed down a bit now.

I was on Methotrexate for several years and it helped me a lot. I ended up in remission which was FANTASTIC. When I started getting symptoms again I jumped on it right away and did some research deciding to see if I could manage things with a change in diet. It worked.

As with any treatment some things work for some people and some are just not effective. Methotrexate does help some people with PsA but it might not be the thing that puts you into remission. Your best bet is always to check with my rheumy.

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Hi Seenie,
We are in Arizona at the moment. We will not be home until first or second week in April. Have checked and temperatures are in the double digits. Winter has been weird every where. Not the weather we were expecting in Texas or in Arizona. All good now.
We have aquired a third puppy so space is tight in a 24ft motorhome.

I know my doctor said that I might have not become immune to Humara if I had been on Methotrexate. I take it now so I do not become immune to any other treatments. On its own, it didn’t help me at all. I am on remicade now and it is working great

Hi Seenie! My joints have been better… My boys are grown and one flown! Thanks for asking. How good of you to remember :slight_smile:

For me, Enbrel is great as monotherapy. I prefer to stay on the least meds necessary, and most of the pain I do have now is from damage to my joints, which no amount of MTX would help anyway.

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Good luck with Enbrel, Poo! It has been the best thing that happened for my PsA—not as much for my psoriasis, though. But I don’t mind. July 1 it’ll be 5 years for me! Amazing stuff!

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Thank you. Three months now as a monotherapy and quite honestly I’ve never felt better PsA wise. And thankfully I’ve no psoraisis presently to worry about.

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A no from me I take simponi and wouldn’t be without it

Compared to most, I am still pretty new with PsA (diagnosed in February/19. The time in waiting for the 3rd month and now waiting for the 4th month to pass since I was put on MTX has been more than unpleasant. About a week past the 3 month mark, I did start to notice subtle changes. Most upper body pain had greatly improved and one knee and both foot pain backed off. One knee has seen no change even with a steroid injection. So, while on 20mg MTX, at this point it absolutely is helping. I am more mobile and not wincing with every step. It has allowed a return to some physical activity which helps ones overall health. I suspect that nothing has been added to my meds because of protocol dictating a certain amount of time on the MTX before anything else can be prescribed. I have had no noticeable negative side effects to the methotrexate. Our Canadian doctors are very good at what they do but budget cut backs put the system into slow motion. I need to have my knee figured out to see if it is a problem caused by PsA or a torn cartridge. So I will limp badly for months waiting to see the orthopaedic consult who will put me on the many month wait for an MRI and then wait for a follow up back with the ortho. Who knows what damage might be done in the waiting. I do have a question: While on MTX, how does one know if they are having a self induced remission and don’t need to be on it…while on it?

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You don’t really know. The only time you sort of find out is when you have to be off mxt for whatever reason and then if you get so much worse you know it was working but if you don’t maybe your own body is working better instead. There’s no other way of knowing. And if something is working like you say mxt is for you, well then you don’t want to be upsetting its effectiveness any time soon, really.

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Amos, everything I’ve read and heard about Mtx & PsA suggests to me that drug-induced remission from Mtx is unlikely. And I gather that spontaneous ‘remission’ is more likely to be one of those lovely ‘good patches’ rather than anything more. I believe that the people most likely to experience very long-lasting remission are young men … though it is long time since that has been aired on here.

I have had the same thoughts about Humira. Unfortunately though, they are often followed by a relatively tough time … I’ve had two rheumys tell me that tapering off a biologic if improvement is considerable and very lasting is something that might be considered. That’s as far as I’ve got anyway.

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Thank you, good input for me. I think I am still at the optimistic stage that hasn’t been brought to the reality of this disease. In my almost 60 years of life, I have fought off conditions and injuries…I still don’t like medication as my only weapon. But I really don’t want to go back to when I was at my worst when weaned off of prednisone. My GP, who has some other PsA patients, was a bit encouraging in telling me that she has found that those who slump badly (as I did) during the first months of mtx, tend to be the ones who do well on it within 4-6 months. Still waiting. I haven’t heard from anyone who has been just on mtx for long term…over ten years with great success…perhaps they feel so good they leave this forum aside!

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Thanks for that. I think that because my inverse psoriasis has gone into a 5 year remission, that the PsA might follow the same pattern. The psoriasis remission has been huge and I only have coin sized patches pop up once in a while…mostly on my eyelids. Protopic cream blasts it away in 2 days. Good days create optimism…and likely in my case…some false hopes.

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Interesting about the psoriasis. I had truly horrid psoriasis as a teenager. Covered me really except for my face. Got it somewhat under control but it remained on legs and elbows. However aged 37 I fell and fractured my shoulder really rather badly and all psoriasis fled. Just fled. It’s never really come back since. The occasional spot barely the size of a pencil top that’s all. That’s called reverse Keobner’s syndrome incidentally but sadly it doesn’t seem to happen in PsA. And I so wish it would!

Keep the optimism though, it’s so useful for daily living , I find.:grinning:

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@Poo_therapy that’s very interesting! Never heard of KKeobner’s syndrome! Thanks for sharing.

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I was off methotrexate for several months before/after my hip replacement surgery in Feb 2019. I really noticed a difference went I started taking MTX again - it definitely helps me with my PsA symptoms.

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