I have taken methotrexate for 25 years. Initially I used oral MTX, but switched to injectable. It seems that injectable has fewer side effects and is more effective. That being said, MTX alone, has not been sufficient to manage my symptoms, so I have taken it in conjunction with biologics, and this was very effective. Enbrel & MTX were great for quite a few years, but then failed. I switched to Humira and MTX and it was not so great. My Humira dose was increased and I developed severe neurological issues, so it was stopped. Next was Cimzia, which didnât work well. Now I am taking Orencia by infusion. This combination is working at the moment. A day or two before I inject MTX I definitely feel not so great, since the MTX is fading in my system. Although I feel medication ups and downs more with MTX than the biologics, neither one on their own works well enough. I take 2-3mg of folic acid daily. Inject 0.8ml of MTX weekly, and have an Orencia infusion monthly. My biggest complaint with MTX is hair loss, although part of this is attributable to age and hypothyroidism.
Had hair loss when at beginning of therapies for psa, after diagnosis , and before biologic,dose was increased from 10 to 15mg. Guess my traumatic recollections of chemo for breast cancer years ago resurfaced and freaked to doctor about it, so dose was lowered again to 10. Do not know if persisting would have made things better. Do know that mtx is still part of my therapy, plus once a month cosentyx, and therapeutic intermittent short fasts with no gluten low carb high good fats diet with fatty fish plus vit d has me walking and relatively pain and flare free at the moment. Am happy to read about long term success of other fellow psas, and wonderful advice on drinking extra water.
No and caused my to have thrush again
Tried it several years ago some thing.
Actually MTX was created in 1947, used in early 50âs as first Chemotherapy. LONG track record.
Of course you are right Quanod62 (though I wouldnât be surprised if someone corrects us if it has actually been around even longer). But of course it was a while before it was used to treat inflammatory arthritis.
I recall reading somewhere (and thinking that the source was quite reliable) that its use for inflammatory arthritis began when oncologists noticed that their patients reported an improvement in their Rheumatoid Arthritis symptoms while on Mtx chemo.
questionâŚI have been on MTX since January and six weeks into I got an upper respiratory infection stopped taking it while I was on antibiotics. Restarted it and here it is again six weeks later another upper respirtory infection. Is this because of MTX? Is it not working for me? I am also on Skyritzi and he added it to help with biologic.
Itâs possibly because Skyrizi plus mxt isnât yet working for you. Basically when the PsA meds work for you, your insane immune system normalises more. So fights off bugs and chest infections etc better. So you get less of the colds, the chest infections etc etc.
Conversely for some people they donât need a biologic plus a cDMARD like mxt as itâs like their immune system is over titivated or modulated, so itâs not normalising enough.
It can be a tough balancing act and itâs one for your prescribing doctor to judge.
Iâve been on three biologics this far. I only took one with a cDMARD and then had a very rare reaction between the two meds which put me in hospital for 4 days! Thereafter the next two biologics I simply took on their own. The second one didnât work at all, the third thankfully did.
Basically we tend to take a cMARD like mxt not to help with symptoms as such but to ensure you donât grow antibodies to the biologic instead. Itâs to prolong the effectiveness of the biologic mainly. They will often keep you on mxt when you first start biologics to help you through the gap of waiting for the biologic to help also.
As always in these things, there is a never a black and white direct answer though. Itâs never that simple.