I have a young friend who has been diagnosed with polymyositis. She has been on Prednisone, but the side-effects are rough on her; her physician mentioned switching her to Methotrexate, and again she is concerned about what possible side-effects she could experience with this drug.

I know there have been threads on Methotrexate, but just to get a fresh perspective on what sort of side-effects this young lady may expect to encounter when and if she is switched to Methotrexate, I'd like to again ask for your collective experiences with this drug. I know that she will appreciate it.


Thanks,

Hi Rex, I don't have any first hand knowledge of either Polymyositis or Methotrexate as a treatment, but here is a link to an informative e-medicine site about polymyositis and the different treatments for it.

http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic474.htm

I hope this helps you.

Thanks...I've seen those sites; I was hoping to get some first-hand information from actual patients, vs. what doctors say about how these drugs "feel". After all, they don't actually take them, right?

I had four intrathecal injections of methotrexate. No side effects, but no impact on my PPMS either...

Thanks for your reply. It's good to know that you had no side effects; sorry you didn't benefit from the drug, though. Of course, I suspect intrathecal is much less prone to side effects than oral, as the oral route subjects the entire system to the drug.