I Want to Stop Methotrexate

[Forest Walker]

I can't blame you Forest, my next option would have been methotrexate - I refused point blank to entertain that and fortunately for me didn't have to go down that route - I truly believe that this should not be used as an option for Psoriasis (but that is just my opinion of course).

Really hoping you find a better option going forward Forest....

Thank you, Wooley.  

Did you know about Methotrexate before finding this forum, Wooley?  How are you managing without any medications?  Is yours quiet or active?

[Fred]

Good luck with your appointment tomorrow.

[Forest Walker]

MTX can work well especially when taken by injection I was on it for many years, there's many other treatments that,in my opinion, are much worse than MTX. Cyclosporine for instance among others but Stelara which acts on interleukin 12 and 23 is extremely good but at the end of the day each of us are individually prone to different drugs so what works for one doesn't necessarily work for another.

Thank you, Dave.  

Way back in the long-ago days of my early Crohn's Disease, I recall reading about both methotrexate and cyclosporine, and I remember my gastroenterologist not being keen on either of these, saying the side effects were severe.  He was my good doctor for just about 20 years before he retired.  He had nearly convinced me to participate in a trial involving interleukins, but I was too fearful.  He did convince me to try Remicade and later Humira.  

So I was leary of starting methotrexate for this, but with my friend's husband tolerating it so well and reading about it here, I agreed to try it. 

It's heartening to know the injection is available and would remove the nausea.  I'm concerned the headaches will persist, though.  Being able to drink wine with dinner and a bourbon, now and then, would be nice, again.

[Forest Walker]

Good luck with your appointment tomorrow. 

Thanks, Fred.  

[D Foster]

Acitretin is another drug that was bad for me it cost me two toe nails that grew inwards because of it.
I have a friend who takes Stelara for his Crohn's which works very well. Stelara works both on interleukin 12 and 23 which works in conjunction with interleukin 17 and I have not had any problems. Of course as I said we are all different in the way our bodies handle things so it's a matter of trial and error.
All the best with your appointment, I also have a dermatologist appointment tomorrow at 2.20pm , just printing out my blood tests etc as I go to the Spire which is a private health care setup and my consultant can't access my blood tests as they are done through the NHS so I downloaded them and printed them.

[Caroline]

It's not unusual FW, methotrexate can work but not for long and 9/10 will feel nausea from it. I found it also made me feel like a zombie all the time, as for the injections for me it was just as bad as the tablets and I even found it gave me mood swings but that could of been down to me hating the stuff.

Stelara would be your best way to go Stelara (ustekinumab) and you can have a drink whilst using it.

At the end of the day it's your body and you have to decide, but in my opinion methotrexate should not be used today for psoriasis.

As for stopping it, I think you can just stop using it but I would discuss that with your doctor.

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*I'll move this to Prescribed Treatments For Psoriasis

I had been hopeful, especially since a long-time friend from Oregon has a husband with adult-onset rheumatoid arthritis.  MTX helped him tremendously, and he had no negative effects.  He must be the one of ten who doesn't.  

Yes… MTX works tremendously well for rheumatoid arthritis !! We all know that.

But…..
What apparently the rheumatologists do not know is that rheumatoid arthritis is completely different from Psoriatic Arthritis and needs a completely different treatment. The origin of both diseases is totally different, which can already be seen in the fact that with rheumatoid arthritis it is easy to see that there are rheumatic-factors visible in the blood and with Psoriatic Arthritis you see nothing in the blood.

[KatT]

There are other options similar to MTX that MAY not cause headache or nausea (i.e. leflunomide, azathioprine).  That being said, they do affect the liver also and have other potential side effects

[Turnedlight]

Do you take the folic acid every day? Only I have a vague recollection that they reduced the dose or number of times a week that I took it, and it helped reduce the nausea.


Also, I found that mtx worked to begin with but then the p started creeping back in, they increased my dose of mtx but it didn’t work - so it’s possible you will get moved on to something else.


There’s a very disturbing belief our doctors have, which is if medicine isn’t working, the most likely reason is the patient isn’t taking it properly/ at all. When I heard that, I found it really offensive but I think I’ve come up against it because I’ve had many treatments fail on me a lot faster than the doc expects and they never seem very pleased with me..

[Caroline]

There’s a very disturbing belief our doctors have, which is if medicine isn’t working, the most likely reason is the patient isn’t taking it properly/ at all. When I heard that, I found it really offensive but I think I’ve come up against it because I’ve had many treatments fail on me a lot faster than the doc expects and they never seem very pleased with me..

Indeed TL, sharp observation.
Alos doctors don’t have an idea of the Side effects feel for the patient of the medication that they are prescribing.

[Wooley]

I can't blame you Forest, my next option would have been methotrexate - I refused point blank to entertain that and fortunately for me didn't have to go down that route - I truly believe that this should not be used as an option for Psoriasis (but that is just my opinion of course).

Really hoping you find a better option going forward Forest....

Thank you, Wooley.  

Did you know about Methotrexate before finding this forum, Wooley?  How are you managing without any medications?  Is yours quiet or active?

Hi Forest, I did know about Methotrexate prior to finding the forum and voiced my concerns to my derm, I have a friend who was on this drug and was quite poorly throughout.  I then found out even more about it once I joined the forum - I just personally didn't want to go down that route (I was on Acitretin at the time).

Touch wood, I haven't had any trace of psoriasis (I had pustular psoriasis) coming up to 4 years or so.... I am very lucky!!