Methotrexate treatment holiday

Escoufle

Does anyone have experience of having been in remission for 18 months and deciding to take a trial holiday from treatment (I currently take 10mg/week). Any experience of side-effects or inflammation flare up ? What is the minimum dose /week that people have found can support continuing remission ?

frogmorton

Hi @Escoufle (I love your username sounds so French!)

I found you this old thread which is interesting:

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/39303/remission

If you are keen to try it would your rheumatologist support you and monitor you very closely I think you probably have the right to try it.

If you do decide to try off it and can spare the time if would be useful if you let us know how you get on if you didn't mind. There just wasn't much to find when I looked for 'old' threads to answer your question.

Take care

YvonneH

Hi @Escoufle,

How lovely to meet you, welcome to the Online Community.

It's important to discuss this with your health care team. Disease activity might seem absent to you but damage can continue. There is a DAS measurement (Disease Activity Score) that rheumatologists use to help guide them. This is used when you visit or talk to your health team to assess the severity of your arthritis. This includes joint pain and tenderness, blood test results, x-rays, overall pain levels etc.

Perhaps a call to your rheumatology nurse or team to make an appointment would be the way to go. If you stop treatment you leave yourself open to a flare in your disease activity, and even if you then return to taking Methotrexate it is possible that your body has made antibodies to make it less efficient or even negate it's effect.

Do let us know how you get on - this topic will be of interest to many of your fellow members

Take care

Yvonne x

Escoufle

Hello Yvonne, thank you for your reply. I am so sorry that I have only just found it.

I agree with all the comments regarding the term, remission. For me it just means that my disease was caught early and methotrexate manages the symptoms to the point where i have had a couple of flare ups in toe joints in 4 yrs. Nothing more, touch wood. My RA consultant was not in favour of a treatment holiday, although my consultant-clinical-oncologist husband (Hence having a user-name) thought it should be possible. I have maintained MTX at 10mg/week, hoping it doesn’t have any long term side effects.

RE my user name: You are correct, Escoufle is the name of a novel by an early 13C medieval French author, on whose works I wrote my MPhil thesis. The works of Jean Renart focus on promoting women as independent, competent actors in their own lives, admittedly within the limits of their times, which is why I identified with them.