Was just on Asacol for first 2 years of having Crohn's (till just a month ago now, now on Imuran) and it made it worse.....Asacol/Pentasa and the family of those drugs are all made specifically for one area of the intestines because they are time released I believe. I was told all this by my GI so not just pulling this out of a hat.
Each different drug in the family targets a seperate area(I think thats what it was anyway) and apparently, if I'm remembering correctly, Asacol targets the area where your small and large intestines join. It was doing an ok job there but with Crohn's your typically affected in more than one area....so therefore the area near the end of my colon was effectively left untreated for 2 years and therefore got much much much worse. Now going for dilaton January 5th....woohoo
So in the end my experience with Asacol started well because I guess it was better than being on nothing but after about a year I'd say things took a turn worse until finally switching doctors. The new doctor didn't exactly say my other one was an idiot but it was sure obvious she thought so
It does have its place and it does work well in some situations I'm sure. For mine though it did not work and never really had a chance. As Mike's quote stated above, Asacol is typically suited for Colitis not Crohn's!!!! Quite mad at my other doctor about this.