[sallyb]

I read somewhere on here that treatment of MS is "no walk in the park".

What are the problems with treatment????

sally

[lady_express_44]

I'm not sure who wrote that, or their particular reasons for doing so, but I can take a guess based on what I've learned.

Generally, there are three categories of drugs we use with RRMS:

1. Symptom management; to help us get through the depression, spasms, pain, etc. Many were/are NOT developed for our specific disease, or perhaps may not have undergone clinical trials to prove their usefulness for MS . . . but may work none-the-less.

2. Disease modification; to hopefully help reduce relapses, and potentially slow disease progression. (They are not intended to help with symptoms). There are 4 drugs currently available; Copaxone, Rebit, Avonex, and Bestaseron. Three are interferons, and Copaxone is glatiramer acetate.

** There is another newer drug on the market called Tysabri, which is administered by infusion once monthy, but is currently recommended as a "last resort" due to some safety concerns **

3. Steroids; used to hasten the recovery from an attack. (They apparently do not improve the degree of recovery, or help prevent the next attack).

In MY mind, there is a fourth category, which currently includes only an oral drug called Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN). It is "rumored" to potentially help with symptom management (1.), reducing relapses AND disease modification (2.) . . . but it has NOT undergone clinical trials to prove it's effectiveness either.

The mainstream disease modifying drugs (2.) are injections; daily, every other day, or once a week. Many people done like doing the injections, and they can experience difficult side effects from using them; depression, flu-like reaction, allergic reactions, liver damage, etc. Additionally, there is no effective way of evaluating whether they are working on any one individual, and the statistics on their efficacy aren't particularly great either. However, people often take them because they'd "rather be doing something then nothing", and they may in fact be working.

The symptom management drugs (1.) can be very effective, but often have side-effects as well (especially if combining many of them to cope with several symptoms). These side-effects can sometimes have us wondering if it is the MS or the drug causing the problems we are experiencing.

Steroids (3.) carry many potential side-effects/risks, from both short and long-term usage, but might be the lesser of two evils when dealing with inflammation that causes eye-sight or breathing problems.

Everyone responds differently to these drugs. Drugs and I don't get along at all , so I tend to avoid them as much as possible. (I use LDN though, as it is relatively safe, and seems effective for me for symptoms, reducing relapses, and in disease progression.)

Cherie

[sallyb]

Hey, Cherie. For not knowing what they were referring to, you sure did a good job explaining the side effects of MS drugs. I think that is what they meant. Thanks for filling me in. sally