conclusion from the study below: Conclusions: These results suggest that Early Treatment of MS is beneficial but the effect appears modest.

that makes the decision to treat/not treat even harder...


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Source: Mul Scler

Long term benefit of multiple sclerosis treatment: an investigation using a novel data collection technique

Conway DS, Miller DM, O'Brien RG, Cohen JA; Multiple Sclerosis (May 2012)

Background: The Knowledge Program (KP) is an initiative to collect self-reported patient data and objective clinician assessments electronically at each outpatient clinical encounter. Available outcomes include the EuroQoL-5D (EQ5D), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ9), Multiple Sclerosis Performance Scales (MSPS), and the timed 25-foot walk (T25FW).Objective: This study was designed to use the KP to investigate the long-term benefits of early treatment (ET) in multiple sclerosis (MS).Methods: The KP was queried for patients with relapsing-remitting MS or secondary progressive MS who were ≥5 years from symptom onset. ET was defined as treatment with an approved agent for ≥3 of the first five years after symptom onset. Propensity scores for ET were calculated based on early clinical characteristics. Patients were divided into propensity score quintiles and linear regression models were constructed to determine the treatment effect sizes and confidence intervals.Results: From the 1082 patients that met entry criteria, 453 patients (41.9%) received ET. Those patients receiving ET showed significantly better scores on the EQ5D index, PHQ9, and MSPS, but only in the upper three propensity quintiles. For the T25FW, ET did not result in significantly better times in any quintile.Conclusions: These results suggest that ET of MS is beneficial but the effect appears modest.

Yep, for me, it's like preaching to the choir..

I wonder how much money they waste on studies like this?

Well Duh (again)

But if you read the marketing/sales information on the "approved drugs" by all their manufacturers, they all indicate that my taking their MS drugs, your problems will be over.

These companies make billions of dollars off MS patients but you only need to view the results to see how ineffective the therapies really are. How sad!

Harry

Well to be fair, Harry, the DMDs, with some variation, are very effective for a certain amount of people. Averaging that out among all the peeps on DMDs, is what makes them look so inadiquate(sp).

Yes, Sally, such different results! Shows how different our MS is, how different we are as total bodies, with our "other" diseases affecting the picture. I can't even think about DMD's because of my Porphyria. I couldn't even think about them before Porph dx, with my drug sensitivity to many (but not all) drugs.
I think this shows that MS has more than one type of basic ailment. I believe that some MS is chemical rather than autoimmune. We had some thoughts on that a few years ago, with this verified by some research.

In all fairness, I am one of those for which the drug is effective. It's been hard for me to understand why so many opt out of treatment, but I get it now!!