The first thing the GP said to me today was “I was at a continuing medical education event last night, and I thought of you!”. Oh, OK then…
Anyway, apparently the talk was on developments in psychiatry, and the psychiatrist was talking about emerging treatments for depression. One of those was anti-tnf therapy. Now this is second hand, you understand, but apparently he said that these days, if someone is referred to him with severe depression and they have a seronegative arthritis, he sends them straight back to the rheumatologist. He said that if they get anti-tnf therapy, more often than not he doesn’t need to see them again.
So I said to her, “And when I told you a few months ago that Enbrel was the best anti-depressant I’d ever had, you laughed!” She said that she had laughed because she had never heard of such a thing, and because she figured that if I thought it made me feel better, I would feel better. And then she said “So last night I was thinking how right you had been!”.
Very interesting from a number of angles. Oh, and she thanked me for the “Psoriatic Arthritis: The Facts” book. She said it was really good.
Interesting news Seenie. I was a much happier person when I had a better quality of life. Right now I'm in a constant state of having a pity party. Accepting the fact I have this disease is no longer an option, now finding the right treatment that will provide a better quality of life and a life of less pain...a journey.
If you're feeling better then of course your overall quality of life (functioning life) would improve, thus less down days and more happy days :-) It's unfortunate that Anti-TNF blockers are not an option at diagnosis for many people.
The book is a wonderful read and I'm waiting for my sister to finish reading it so I can share with my doctor.
It is interesting, but also unfortunate, as you say, that tnf antagonists are sometimes not an option. It does give a clue as to why so many of us suffer.
You’re allowed to have a pity parties on this journey. We’ve all had them, and look forward to better days!
I think this is all wonderful to hear. If there’s a bigger push for anti-TNFs then they (congress and NIH?) will likely expedite the generic manufacture process for them (which is a thought that fills me with dread because of the necessary complexity of the manufacturing process). Anyway if there’s more use than just our kinds of illness who can benefit from their use then it might help costs come down in the long run. I’m most heartened by two things: a) your doctor thought of you and b) your doctor recognized how wrong she had been!
