Help and advice with diagnosis and medication

BHub

Hi,

I'm new here and wondered if I could ask for some advice and support. I am 34 years old and was diagnosed with Psoriatic arthritis and Ankylosing Spondylitis around 5 months ago and started on the biologic drug Cimzia 5 weeks ago. Although I have been advised to give it up to 6 months to really have an effect, I started to notice a difference in some of my swelling, stiffness and pain instantly which was amazing. However around week 3 things seemed to start going backwards and my inflammation came back along with the pain (still not quite as bad as it was before I started the medication) but most strangely I have had a flare up in my skin psoriasis which is worse than I ever had it before I was on the medication. I have been told and everything I have read says Cimzia should also improve your skin symtoms but because I wasn't given this drug for the skin side of things I don't really have anyone to ask for advice as to if this is normal and what I should do now. Has anyone experienced a similar thing on this drug? Is it normal to feel like it was starting to work and now things are getting worse?

Thanks very much,

Becky

noddingtonpete

Hello @BHub and welcome to the Online Community. We are a friendly and supportive group and I hope that will be your experience as well.

I've put a link in below to information we have on Certolizumab pegol (Cimzia) but if you have any doubts I would get back in touch with your GP/Consultant to make sure that all is OK.

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/treatments/drugs/certolizumab-pegol/

If you need anything else just keep posting and hopefully we will be able to supply some information, or others on here might be able to relate their experiences.

Best wishes

Peter

Arciere

Hi

We have a similar disease. I take a biologic drug, although different type. My PsA diagnosis was because of many things including a 1cm patch of psoriasis near my ear.

The biologic does really help, however I still get the odd flare up and my small patch of psoriasis does sometimes flare up as such / as in, mostly i forget it’s there but other times it can feel angry ?

I attribute a lot of this to diet - take a look at my other posts, although it can also just be the disease. I also find stress and cold can cause a flare up I think.

I guess you haven’t been taking the medication for that long, so hang on in there. I hope you start to feel better effects soon.

jamieA

Hi @BHub

I was diagnosed with PsA in late 2020 and have been on the anti-TNF alpha adalimumab biosimilar Amgevita since July 2021. In the time since when I've had a flare I've been tested a couple of times to see if my system was generating antibodies to adalimumab which apparently is not uncommon. Thankfully in my case that's not happened. I see that Cimzia is also an anti-TNF alpha biologic and that there are reports of patients developing antibodies to it. I'd suggest you contact your rheumatologist to talk to them about what's happening to you. It may well not be the case but it's worth getting checked out.