[split] Methotrexate Booklet

[Grizzly Bear]

MTX goes back to 1947

That's nearly as old as Fred

[jiml]

MTX goes back to 1947  

That's nearly as old as Fred  

It's as old as me

[Bill]

My concern with Mtx is that you do not have a safe set of parameters to work within. Yes, the risk is small, but with DMF, provided I stay within set boundaries, there is no risk. The death I mentioned was from 5*2.5 mg doses of Mtx: That would be like taking a paracetamol and dropping dead. Not my cup of tea.

[pingu]

All drugs are dangerous and the cases that I have found where MTX has caused a fatality are a direct result of incorrect administration of dosages. One case where a pharmacist incorrectltly stated the dosage daily instead of weekly and two where patients self administered drugs.

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Now I am no expert but this thread was a query about the booklet but many have jumped on the MTX bandwagon souting MTX causes death. So lets looks at Fumaderm and the reliability or lack thereof of the internet.

The following site lists and claims side effects of Fumaderm and its prevalence with a simple chart. i would query the validity of the data but use this as a simple example that those suffering side effects with Faumaderm 10% of which result  in death.

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The second site alludes to three cases with other factors.

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I am all for providing people with information and pointing out the need for caution with drugs. MTX may need particular attention however there would appear to be plenty of people taking it with little or no side effects. I offer this as a balance and would advocate anyone following meticulously the dosages stated by their consultant. One thing that does appear and I am beginning to find this myself is that many medical professionals are not specifically aware of the drug interactions of MTX and cannot quickly define what can and cannot be taken alongside it.

To this I can not offer any advice but I for one will avoid any other medication alongside my MTX.

I would actually suggest that some of the above posts, including this one may be removed as scaremongering and I find it a little frustrating that rather than simply disagreeing with something such as MTX people start throwing statistics that are poorly substantiated or indeed not substantiated at all such as the second link above relating to Fumaderm.

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EDIT By Fred: Links Removed.

[Bill]

Pingu,

The first link reported two deaths from Fumaderm in a subset of nineteen. The same site reports 1177 deaths from Mtx in a subset of over a hundred thousand. Mtx is like swimming with a shark in the water: You will probably be okay, but there is no guarantee of safety.

Cheers,

Bill

[Bill]

No reported deaths for paracetamol/phenacetin, so presumably there is a safe area for this drug also.

[Caroline]

@Pingu, my apologies. I got a bit carried away by my feelings with MTX. Sorry for taking the booklet off-topic, maybe Fred can make a split of it, as some points e.g. by Bill are certainly valid remarks, and might better be in a different discussion.

Caroline

[jiml]

@Pingu, my apologies. I got a bit carried away by my feelings with MTX. Sorry for taking the booklet off-topic, maybe Fred can make a split of it, as some points e.g. by Bill are certainly valid remarks, and might better be in a different discussion.

Caroline

Yes I think it's time to split the thread and stop posting off topic

[Fred]

This thread is made up of Off Topic posts taken from Methotrexate Booklet

@Pingu I have also removed the links from your post as we have a No Link Policy.

[pingu]

No worries Fred, didn't realise there was a no link policy.

Think I will step away from this conversation anyway.