I'm new here, Leflunomide - what's the deal? Your experience would be appreciated...

NickMaddox41

Hi, I'm new here - I've been living with Seronegative / Psoriatic Arthritis for about 8 years now - it was being quite well managed with Methotrexate and NSAIDS but after some recent trauma and a progression of my disease - Methotrexate doesn't work so I'm taking Leflunomide - I know it's Cytotoxic but some of the side effects are scary (I'm a 41 year old male).

If it's at all possible, if anyone else (I'm assuming there will be many) has taken this medication for a while at least, can you assure me that it's ok (or not) please ?

frogmorton

Morning @NickMaddox41

Nice to meet you, but sorry I have never tried Lef myself. I did a quick search of recent posts about the medication and got this:

https://community.versusarthritis.org/search?domain=all_content&query=leflunomide&sort=-dateInserted&scope=site&source=community

Some of these people will likely still be posting so might spot your post and offer something more useful than me!

Take care

Toni

jamieA

Hi @NickMaddox41

I've not been prescribed leflunomide for my PsA - I'm on sulfasalazine, MTX and adalimumab. I think unfortunately any drug we are prescribed for inflammatory arthritis is going to suppress our immune system to some degree so being vigilant to any new health changes and notifying our medical professionals immediately is probably the best we can do. I appreciate the list of possible side effects of any of these drugs looks very daunting though.

I hope the new drug works for you.