Which biological to start with?

[nabrug]

Hi everybody,

Joined the group several years ago. Talked about some of my problems but that is still hard to do. But the website means a lot to me although I m not responding a lot. I hope you will understand.

I have had DMF, light therapy and MTX the past few years and am now progressing to the biologicals. I read Maryam's journal and discovered that people favour humira to stelara? Or is it the other way around. What should I consider? My intake is at November 18 at the AMC Amsterdam.

[Fred]

The TNF ones are falling out of favour and the IL's are gaining.

I have tried both but I can no longer take the TNF's as I had bad reactions to them. IL's on the other hand have been great. But your question is so difficult to answer as what works for one may not work for another.

I would suggest you read up on this thread: Biological Treatments For Psoriasis to get the basics and then use the Search to get more information on each one.

Personally I wouldn't try Humira and would go for Stelara as a first try, but that is only going by my own experience.

Good to know our forum is of help to you, and yes we understand. Not everyone wants to post, but we will help if we can. Though your question is not an easy one to answer, even for a dermatologist or a patient. We are all different and psoriasis is so difficult to treat.

[jiml]

Hi Nabrug it's good to see you back  and a shame dmf and other oral treatments stopped working for you.
As someone who's not been on a biological drug it's hard for me to comment on which way to go. But in the years I have been reading posts here Stelara seems to be the one that many get good results from. And I know when the time comes for me to go onto biologicals I will choose Stelara first over Humira if offered a choice
Good luck with making a choice and I see Fred has given you some ideas to find links to others threads from users of bios
Jim

[Kat]

There are so many biologics that it's hard to recommend one over the other since we are all so different in our reactions to them.

Do you have psoriatic arthritis as well? That can make a difference as to what you should perhaps try.

I'm with Fred and Jim, between Humira and Stelara, I'd go with Stelara first. It didn't work for me (but I haven't had much luck with biologics so far for some reason) but it does seem to work for most people.

[Maryam]

a little late to the party... but...

humira is a lot cheaper than stelara or cosentyx. So that's why they prefer to start with humira. Humira became a lot cheaper this year, but if you want to start with stelara instead of humira you should just ask, that is what I did. They had to discuss it because of the cost, but they went with it. I don't know in which hospital you are, but I am treated in UMC Utrecht and very happy with them. They are all very friendly and take your wishes into consideration.

[Caroline]

Nico..

Did you ever tell us why you stopped the DMF?

Jim implies that it apparantly would not work for you anymore, which is extremely rare,. So I would like to hear it from you, and I am very curious. How in heaven’s name did you from DMF progress to MTX?


Caroline

[Maryam]

Nico..

Did you ever tell us why you stopped the DMF?

Jim implies that it apparantly would not work for you anymore, which is extremely rare,. So I would like to hear it from you, and I am very curious. How  in heaven’s name did you from DMF progress to MTX?


Caroline

probably because of low lymphocytes according to the new protocol and than mtx is next on the list because it’s cheap....

but that’s my guess because that happened to me.

[D Foster]

Hi nabrug, I am probably prejudice but Stelara in my humble opinion is the one to go for and I agree with Fred on this one. Have good read about but I personally have found that Stelara has worked for me without any real side effects and after the first injection plus the second at 4 weeks than it's every 12 weeks it less of a problem.