Methotrexate Increases Risk of 'Many Adverse Events'- Medpage Today

While they may be rare, Daniel Solomon says, rheumatologists need to be watchful
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[@fortheloveofbrum3106]

As someone on Methotrexate thank for discussing this openly. It's so important for anyone considering taking medications to be aware of the risk/benefit so they can make an informed decision. Having these potential side effects (however small the likely hood) is so important as patients are often the first to notice something "isn't right" but with no points of reference could easily brush these initial clues off. Thank you to all the Rheumatologists (and trainee Rheumatologists out there). After many years of being treated as a knee, a hip and a foot problem it was a Rheumatologist who spoke to me and helped me feel seen Thank you Mr Rupak Moitra for treating me like a human being.

[@badeugenecops4741]

It killed my father. He was prescribed it for MINOR PSORIASIS. I am going to sue that dermatologist right out of his practice.

[@tamarawilliams4309]

So sad

[@terryroberts4321]

it gave me cancer

[@camp4869]

How did it kill him?

[@MrEnoch-dy4tg]

Sorry to hear that 😢 I’m on week 4 out of 8 treatment for psoriasis and it gives me insane headaches so I can’t go to work 2 days a week

[@Nik-cl9iz]

I took Methotrexate for over a year. I lost my hair, my hair thinned out, brittle, fell out. I took folic acid and hair vitamins. I would still get flare ups. I take Enbrel and get sick three times a year really bad. Even with the auto injector for Enbrel, i still have severe pain cant even lift my covers it feel like little bones in my wrists are breaking, I keep hearing the popping noises

[@DannaK247]

Don't even consider taking this medication. Tolerating the pain far outweighs the side effects of this horrible medication.

[@eddiebenzz]

Not for me. I already have arthritic problems. Don’t need more ! I wanna keep my hair & my teeth .

[@ValenceFlux]

Seeing as he mentioned an interaction with DMARDS. I was prescribed Ibuprofen for a year before they wanted to try methotrexate. I ended up in the hospital with gut pains. The GI said ibuprofen may have caused me severe inflammation and to never take it again. As if I didn't have or wasn't going to have more problems... I miss how healthy I once was but glad at least part of my life I didn't need treatments. It was NSAIDS ibuprofen I meant to say the doctors said for me to never take again. Some people can handle it fine but we are all different.

[@mamashiraz]

I just assumed taking methotrexate means an increased risk of skin cancer because it makes one’s skin more sun sensitive and not that the drug itself causes cancer🤷🏻‍♀️

[@msmagpie5620]

I lost alot of my hair.

[@montanak7]

What about how it killed my facial bones and teeth! Sinus prolapsed and need 150,000 in oral surgery now! And it did NOT help. It DID reactivate my EBV... I never got better!

[@t.antoinette2383]

R u serious??

[@E10l]

Now I’m scard . I’m taking it for scarring alopecia for two months and it hasn’t help yet and I’m afraid it won’t help. I don’t have side effects so far😬🤞🏻🙏🏻

[@NJSMKMMS]

Very interesting….

[@randytolin3059]

This methatrexate. Is bad for you

[@sbtan8459]

I knew it's bad only wanted to know when should I stop taking it

[@noddingbart6915]

​@@sbtan8459 What are you taking it for? Psoriasis? Arthritis? Whatever you take it for WILL COME BACK soon as you stop it

[@HotFlushSummer]

If you can’t tolerate it you can’t tolerate it and you’re better off discontinuing use as soon as you know you’re not tolerating it. It triggered head splitting migraines and the loss of partial vision in one eye for my poor mum. She waited for this to improve on the advice of the rheumatology nurse and had a stroke not long after. She’s lost much of the control of the left side of her body. My heart is broken in two. The subsequent medication she was on, a drug called leflunomide which is a biologic, made her appear drunk - she was talking to herself, having to crawl on the floor to get around and became absolutely emaciated, losing 10lbs from an already tiny frame within about 7 days at which point I took her off them after everything we’ve been through. The rheumatology nurses (not the consultant as we are now waiting for her to see one,) strongly stated none of these symptoms can be caused by either drug, but studies including by Harvard University on mice and rats found easily enough on on PubMed say different. Also, they rarely take your overall health and family history into consideration and realise one size does not fit all. My mum is very small and underweight and also suffers from ME (as do I,) which can definitely make your reaction to medications a lot more severe in a vastly weakened state than a relatively robust person. There is far too much medical gaslighting about the fact that just because some reactions are incontrovertibly rare in numbers, it doesn’t mean they’re unconnected and doesn’t mean that they don’t happen. If you are put on methotrexate or any other strong chemo drug for an autoimmune arthritis I would say to anyone to listen to their bodies instead of waiting for something to go away that is getting worse rather than better. I’m hoping and praying the rheumatologist can find something altogether milder to manage my mum’s condition as I’m absolutely terrified of something like this reoccurring and me losing her too soon. So yes, your symptoms will eventually come back if you’ve come off it, but when side effects are as devastating as what my mum went through the PSA (in her case,) was like a holiday compared to this.

[@mamashiraz]

@@noddingbart6915 How can “it” come back when it ever left?? The immune system is attacking itself and the drug dampens the immune system. It’s not a cure but it helps to minimize damage. Of course symptoms will be back when the drug is discontinued.

[@noddingbart6915]

@@mamashiraz The "it" that I said was referring to the medication, Methotrexate. Please improve your reading comprehension in your own time