6-Mercaptopurine/puri-nethol

[Jfrank]

So I saw my GI on Friday and I definately have crohns disease. He said that it is moderate to severe. My old GI told me that I had a mild case so i was a little upset when i heard this news. Anyways atleast now i can get proper treatment and hopefully i will not have anymore flare ups in the near future. My GI wants to put me on 6-Mercaptopurine/puri-nethol and I was wondering if there were others on the forum who have taken this drug. If so, how do you like the drug? The side effects are a little scary and it is big time commitment with having to get blood tests every week. Does anyone know why doctors would prefer this drug over ramicade?

 

[Brando]

usually you have to be on this drug already for remicade to work correctly. it does have some pretty scary side effects but most of them are rare. just be careful and dont drink alcohol while taking it as it could mess your liver up. other than that it might make you tired. if you havent tried probiotics i would give them a shot to see if they help you. i was on 6-mp for a while and tried probiotics and stopped taking 6-mp because they worked so well.

 

[Jeff D.]

I have been taking 6mp for the past three years and have been fine on it. I only had to get blood tests once a week for the first few months and now I get them everytime I see my GI which is like three timees a year. I have not had a problem with it at all so I guess I am lucky.

 

[Jfrank]

Thanks for the responses. I'm a little confused. Are you saying I shouldn't drink alcohol on puri-nethol or ramicade? That would suck not being able to have an occasional drink. What are probiotics? I'm relatively new to all this ... before this past flare up the only drugs I used were asacol and pentasa so i don't know much about treatment options.

 

[Jeff D.]

You should not drink alcohol on 6mp because it could kill your liver.

Probiotics are bacteria that help your intestines function and kill off bad bacteria.

Hope this helps

 

[Shoeless]

My doctor told me you can't drink while taking 6MP because it could your stomach to explode. Have I been misinformed?

 

[old hat]

Does anyone know why doctors would prefer this drug over ramicade?

The AGA treatment guidelines are pretty specific about using Remicade (infliximab). It is generally only indicated for use in fistulizing CD or CD and UC that doesn not respond to conventional therapies including 6-mp or other immunomodulator medications. There are some good reasons for this.

First, it's pretty scary stuff in it's own right. If anything, it's scarier than the 6-mp at the kind of 6-mp doses prescribed for CD. The Remicade is scary enough that it is mostly used on people who haven't responded to anything else. It is almost a 'last resort before surgery' sort of treatment. Serious liver or kidney damage, increased risk of lymphoma, Lupus-like autoimmune conditions, serious and even sometimes fatal infections and sometimes severe allergic reactions are all possibile side effects of Remicade. These kinds of side effects are rare but very serious. It isn't a therapy to be used lightly.

Also, the stuff is very expensive. I don't know what sort of insurance you have but they might not cover the Remicade until the standard guidelines call for it. You do not want to pay for this stuff out of pocket. It's crazy expensive. Like ~$3,000 US per dose.

 

[milesrlv]

I am just coming off of 6mp it seemed to do some good but unfortunately for me it also caused a serious drop in my red blood cell counts and the worry was that I was having a problem with the toxic bone marrow side effect that can happen on occasion.

 

[Shoeless]

I must be lucky this works for me I don't get the blood tests as often as I should, but I never seem to have a prob with it. Since I have taken 6MP it has stopped the bleeding problem I used to have. (Noone says hey did you sit in catsup.

 

[goblue650]

I recently decided to stop 6-mp after being on it for half a year. It worked well enough as far as keeping me in remission. However, it just made me feel tired all the time. I was taking budesonide at the same time so the tiredness could have been from the insomnia that the budesonide caused. Either way, I generally felt a little "off" on it. Also, I got crazy drymouth from either the 6-mp or the B. Not sure which. I will say that while I haven't gone into full-blown flare-up since stopping, I have noticed a difference. Things aren't acting up pain-wise, more a feeling of unsettledness when my stomach is not behaving. And the big D has been much more frequent since I've been off. I would say that 6-mp was definitely working while I was on it. I just didn't like my energy levels and how it made me feel.