This week’s MS Tuesday post is going to be an update to my post where I talk about the treatments there are for Multiple Sclerosis. If you want to check out the original post you can click here but I am going to copy and paste the old post and updated it with the new treatments that have come out since that post was originally published.
I am going to do a small overview of the different Multiple Sclerosis medications out there right now. I want to start by saying that there is no cure of MS right now. There are a few medications that will hopefully slow the progression on the disease.
The first group of drugs are called Immune modulating drugs. They work by keeping the immune cells from interacting with other cells. This group consists of 3 different drugs they are called Betaseron, Rebif, and Avonex. There is one other drug that is under this type of medication and it is Copaxone. This one is made of amino acids and works differently than the interferon’s.
There is Tysabri that attaches itself to the blood brain barrier and doesn’t let immune cells into the brain. There are several other treatments such as: Novantrone, Cytoxan, Imuran, Rheumatrex, and Trexall. All of those treatments are drugs that will suppress the immune system.
Since I posted the original post they have come out with several pill’s that you can now take. Before you had to have shots and/or an infusion so coming out with pills was huge for people who have MS. The names of the pills are: Gilenya, Tecfidera and Aubagio. I don’t know much about the new drugs out because right now Tysabri is still working for me so I am not in a hurry to try any new medication right now.
They will sometimes give a person steroid treatment if they are having an MS flare up or relapse. I have been given steroids several times and I will always refuse them now. I don’t think they really didn’t anything but make me gain weight and make my eyes see funny colors. I can see why they do them but I would rather have some disability than deal with the side effects of the drugs.
I have taken several different MS medications and if you would like to know which ones I have taken and how they affected me please let me know. There are also medications that we are given to help manage side effects of medications and also to deal with how the disease affects each of us as well. If you would like to know anything else please let me know!
The sites I used to get the information for this post from:
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/understanding_multiple_sclerosis_medications/page6_em.htm#inter (original site I used)
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/multiple-sclerosis/basics/treatment/con-20026689 (new treatments info)
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