New diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis

[Kat]

Definitely varied responses on the rheumatologist.  Mine (rheumatologist) did say that some insurance companies here (in the US) require trying MTX first as it's cheaper but also said they were starting to get away from that.  But I was never prescribed MTX by either doctor.  They both (rheumatologist and dermatologist) worked together to determine which biologics to try.  Stelara was from the dermatologist, the Cosentyx and Taltz were decided upon by both (one concentrating on skin the other on arthritis.)  I DO feel like I may have had some good results with the Cosentyx as far as the arthritis goes but at that time the psoriatic arthritis was just starting to bother me so I'm not totally sure it helped,  but  I didn't feel the Taltz helped with that and none of them helped my skin. 

Since I didn't have any clearing on the biologics and the doctors were discussing what to try next, I put the brakes on when the pandemic hit.  Right now I'm using lotion (prescription - Talconex) for the skin and sadly am noticing a bit more issues with the arthritis.  I just wasn't interested in trying another biologic at this time since none of them had helped.

I do think that for here in the United States if you have psoriatic arthritis a dermatologist may not be the only one you should see, but that is just my opinion.  If you have a trusted dermatologist who feels like they can oversee the psoriatic arthritis as well then that would probably be sufficient.  Everything here is just so specialized that my dermatologist felt that my rheumatologist was better to handle the arthritis side of things as he has more experience with it.  They consult with each other so I'm happy with both.

Different health systems and just different opinions in general.