I just want to clarify that the intention was certainly not to try to take away anyone's hope at all! It was a sincere question about using DMDs to treat PPMS, as I (and others) have been told and read many times that they are ineffective for that type. So... the only thing that seemed to make sense was if the doctor was trying to cover all bases in case it actually was SPMS.

That said, of course I had to do some research about this, especially since Copaxone seemed to be the doctor's choice every time someone mentioned a DMD for PPMS in this thread. And I believe this is the answer below, probably in addition to the possible SPMS theory.

Here are a few links to the PoMISe (aka Promise) trial, which dealt with using Copaxone to treat PPMS. I haven't had time to read everything I found very thoroughly but it seems to have shown some degree of effectiveness in some cases, at least on MRI scans. It doesn't seem to me like the results are incredibly conclusive but I believe this explains why some doctors choose to prescribe it. I did read somewhere (might be in one of these links) that a similar trial was done with Avonex and seemed to have no effect.

Read all three links because surprisingly, it's the 2007 link that makes the strongest case. Of course, there's a lot more information out there on this if anyone is interested in doing more research.

From 2002:
http://www.allbusiness.com/company-a...6004733-1.html

From 2004:
http://www.thisisms.com/article102.html

From 2007:
http://www.drugs.com/clinical_trials...lated-223.html

Also, here is an excerpt from a page on the NMSS site from 2008:

http://www.nationalmssociety.org/cha...ent/index.aspx

I hope this is information is helpful and also clarifies the intent of questioning the use of Copaxone for PPMS.