Asacol/Pentasa....does it work?

[Peaches]

Just wondering how many people have taken these drugs and found them to work. I took them for several years only to find they made my disease worse and not better.

 

[shazamataz]

Can't help Peaches, though i was planning on enquiring about these as an option before resorting to immune suppressants.

 

[imisspopcorn]

When I was initally diagnosed, the Asacol did the trick...Now I think I might as well just toss em' in the toilet whole because they look totally undigested when I take them. Pentasa did nothing that i could tell...

Also, I am allergic to sulfa meds...It's not suppose to matter, but I was wondering how many others have a sulfa/Bactrim allergy.

 

[My Butt Hurts]

I think those meds might be good for mild to moderate Crohn's. When I was first diagnosed, Sulfasalazine (similar to the two you are asking about) sent me into remission for quite a while. I honestly can't remember if I took pred to start off with too, seems like I would have.
I only switched to asacol for the last trimester of pregnancy and for breatsfeeding. That worked for a year or so.
I've been on pentasa since then, and it kept me in remission for quite a while. Since then I have been on Humira or Remicade. I'm still on pentasa, but I don't know why really if it quit working.
So anyhoo - long story short - yes, they have worked for me.

IMP - Those aren't whole pills in the toilet. They crack open and the casings are left. Benson and I have investigated =D (Our own - not each other's.)

 

[imisspopcorn]

You know, that is what my doctor tells me...But they go through me in 6 hours ( Yes I timed it. Don't ask)...I guess I'll have to investigate.

 

[Angee]

Before I was officially diagnosed they gave me asacol and about a month into it was when my stomach abscessed, after my surgeries they took me off it and officially diagnosed me with Crohns, they then put me on pentasa, I have been taking it about 4 years now and I still have many flare's but I think they would be worse without it, They have had me on 6mp now for a few months and the first two months were hell always in pain but for this past month I have felt great first time in ages...I have mini flares that last a day or two but I usually take prednisone for a few days and it goes away.

 

[mwb3779]

When I was initally diagnosed, the Asacol did the trick...Now I think I might as well just toss em' in the toilet whole because they look totally undigested when I take them. Pentasa did nothing that i could tell...

Also, I am allergic to sulfa meds...It's not suppose to matter, but I was wondering how many others have a sulfa/Bactrim allergy.

Sometimes when take Asacol they look undigested too. I did see one time it looked like it was just the shell of the pill. I think the red casing is just for delivery to the colon.

I had a reaction to sulfasalazine. It made me feel worse. I didn't really feel like "normal" on it. I went back to Asacol.

 

[Agent X20]

Asacol worked for me for a good few years. I'm still taking it with the azathioprine as the doc reckoned it wouldn't do any harm.

 

[mwb3779]

As I was looking for what Pentasa is. I found this which may be interesting to some.

How does Pentasa differ from Asacol
Both Pentasa and Asacol are prescription forms of mesalamine. The difference between Asacol and Pentasa is in the outer chemical coating. Oral Pentasa has a unique formulation. The active ingredient is contained in coated microgranules, which enables a prolonged release of the active substance throughout the intestinal tract, from duodenum to the rectum. Therefore the Pentasa preparation is more useful for Crohn's patients who often have inflammation of the small intestine. The average small bowel transit time is approximately 3-4 hours in healthy volunteers.

Asacol is a delayed release enteric-coated tablets which generally releases the active ingredient only in the colon. While there are always clinical exceptions, Asacol is generally suitable for patients with colitis only (ulcerative colitis or Crohn's colitis), but not disease involving the small intestine.

 

[beth]

My GI consultant said they didn't have the effectiveness of any of the other immune suppressing drugs like azathioprine. We looked at it as an option for me after failing MTX, but doc said it was not good enough, only about 10% the oomph of aza.

 

[NatalieMT]

Pentasa did nothing for me... I don't think Pentasa made me feel any worse (Azathioprine sure did!) but it didn't have any positive outcomes either.

 

[Skinny Dub]

Also, I am allergic to sulfa meds...It's not suppose to matter, but I was wondering how many others have a sulfa/Bactrim allergy.

My old next door neighbor had that issue and she has been on asacol for years and that works for her.

I started off on asacol I think it may have worked for a little while but never really put me in remission and adventually lead to surgery so I think it stopped working. But they still want me to continue taking it which I guess im ok with since I have a free 5 month supply of it. lol

Asacol is a delayed release enteric-coated tablets which generally releases the active ingredient only in the colon. While there are always clinical exceptions, Asacol is generally suitable for patients with colitis only (ulcerative colitis or Crohn's colitis), but not disease involving the small intestine..

After reading that now I really dont think I need to take it anymore since it had affected my in my illuem. I'm also on remi and azasan so whats the point. :ybatty:

 

[Creepy Lurker]

I know a few people irl with Crohn's. We all started on asacol, found that it didn't work and then got moved to other meds.

I wonder what the success rate is?

 

[CrohnsHobo]

I was on asacol and 6-mp together for about 12 years. I stopped taking them at the end of last year. I think they worked for awhile, then like everything else they slowly stopped working.

 

[farm]

I've been on Pentasa for years and I honestly can't tell a bit of difference.

 

[Cookie]

I started on Asacol and it helped with the constant D I was having, but I still developed a fistula while on it. I quit taking it (on my own) because I was on too many other drugs but I think that was a mistake. I think it should be taken if you are in remission because other than remembering to take it, there's no real harm in it (no side effects), at least for me.

 

[Peaches]

I went back and looked for this video that one of the members posted a few months ago that really made me sit up and listen. He talks about *exactly* the course of treatment order that I have gone through over the last 13 years - and mentioned the thing about 5 ASA drugs (Pentasa/Asacol) being not very good. Obviously this works for some and not for others which is why I made the poll to begin with - I wanted to see.

Here is the link. It can be hard to follow him with the slides in general because there is no indicator of when to flip - but I found the overall talk to be very good. If you don't have time to listen to the entire thing - zip over to slide 22 and go to 8:00 in the video. To begin - scoll to the bottom of the screen:

http://www.clevelandclinicmeded.com/online/webcasts/crohns-disease/medical-therapy/

 

[Crohn's 35]

I was on Pentasa in conjunction with other drugs, and sometimes on it's own, didnt work, and I have never tried Asacol but my sister has, it worked for her but that is because she has UC and CD. I also tried Salofalk, seem to help for a while but always needed a back up... I guess it depends on where and how bad your flares are.

 

[crazycanuck]

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.

 

[violetcreams]

Pentasa? I may as well be swallowing thin air. It's absolutely useless.

 

[Timmytoogood]

I have been taking four 500mg Pentasa per day. These are from Shire Pharmaceuticals, they are blue tablets. I think they are helping. They are, however, very expensive. (About $2.20 US per pill.) I found an online store in Canada, (approved by the Canadian Int Pharmacy Assoc) where Pentasa only costs about 70 cents a pill. These grey pills are from Ferring Pharmaceuticals out of Ireland. After a day of taking them I got some of the nastiest gut aches and Big D I've had in a long time.

My Crohns seems to drift in and out and it could be a coincidence that it just happened to get really bad right after taking the Ferring Pentasa. Is anyone else using the Ferring Pentasa? I'm a little nervous about using them again.

 

[Nytefyre]

Pentasa was a complete waste of my time and money. Asacol wasn't that much better.

 

[milesrlv]

I was on Pentasa and never noticed any improvement in my disease. But I did notice an unusual lightening of my wallet as I flushed the undissolved granules from the capsules down the toilet. With regard to 6MP I was on that and it nearly killed me and put me into the hospital requiring a blood transfusion. After this though I went into a long remission.

 

[cwf5020]

I have been on Pentasa since I was diagonosed 6 years ago. I had a resection 5 years ago, and I remained on Pentasa (3750 mg/day). The Pentasa seemed to work up until the past few months in which I have been haveing re-occuring flare ups.

 

[Procyon]

I've been on Pentasa pretty much since I was diagnosed. It's kind of difficult to say what it's done in my case -- it seems I've always needed to be on something else in addition to the Pentasa to keep my disease under control. So I suppose I'd have to stop taking the Pentasa and see if anything worsened to find out if it's helped much.

 

[Nic]

They started me on Pentasa and it made me sick. I then went to Imuran and Prednisone and it seemed to be working fine until I moved and they changed me to Entocort and took me off the Imuran and I've had nothing but problems since. I'm now on the Asacol and I'm not sure why as my GI told me it wouldn't do anything for me...so why make me take it?? I go back on wednesday and I'm hoping they will try the Imuran again since I was doing so well on it!! Otherwise they want to start Remicade and I'm not sure I'm ready to start that yet :/

 

[CrohnsHobo]

Took Asacol for about 11 years with success.Then it just stopped.

 

[razz]

I reacted to the mild meds I had. Sulfasalazine and Salafolk*.

The first one I had headaches, fever, rash so I thought it might be the a sulfa allergy and then the second would give me miagraines that I had NEVER had in my life.

Lucky for me I came through the worst of my flare before I was diagnosed.
So now I just take B12 shots. I think I will start fish oil tablets.

 

[kenny]

I found the Asacol helped to reduce inflammation in my colon while I was on a heavily modified diet. I have read the different 5ASA drugs are basically set to release at different times. Asacol is for the lower end. Salafolk should work a bit higher up in the GI tract.

I took Asacol for two months prior to surgery for the purpose of getting as much healthy tissue repaired on the colon side of things before they went in and cut out the leaking scared up stuff.

 

[Sue-2009]

Asacol was a joke for my colitis...I never really got a good try at the 6mp because I was so inflammed..Colon Removed. I am on Pentasa now, just off of prednisone 2 weeks..things are okay...I have more pain then when I was on the prednisone..I have my doubts...But my fingers are crossed....

 

[NeilW]

I was put on Asacol as soon as I was diagnosed 15 years ago and was still on it up until June last year. Like a few people have said, it certainly seemed to work in the beginning and I always felt worse if I didn't take it for a couple of days.

Over the years though the dose got less and less until last year when I was down to just 2x400mg a day. My doctor told me that it was now such a low dose that she doubted it was being very effective and suggested I stop taking it. That was 7 months ago and I don't seem to be missing it!

 

[GoJohnnyGo]

I got put back on Asacol today (6x400). Dunno if it will help or not.

 

[kjeanb]

Just wondering how many people have taken these drugs and found them to work. I took them for several years only to find they made my disease worse and not better.

I'm with you, Peaches...I've been taking Pentasa since October and I feel worse than before. I've also missed more work than before as a result. I know I should be more patient and give it time but I am really sick of feeling sick.

Also, I have to make sure I have plenty of migraine meds on hand. I have always had them but they have increased since I have been taking Pentasa.

 

[Brrenda]

I've been taking Sulfasalazine for years now and find it helps me tremendously. If I get sick (other sick) and forget to take any pills for a couple days, I feel the Crohn's coming back with a vengeance.

 

[Rebecca85]

I have been taking Pentasa for a while now, and while I do still have symptoms, they aren't getting any worse. I think the Pentasa is too mild to calm my system down any more, but is at least stopping me from feeling as bad as I did prediagnosis.

 

[xoxava]

May not be much of help, I just started treatment and I take 9 asacol a day. I am also allergic to sulfa meds and found that out in Feb while in the hospital. So far I haven't noticed a huge difference, soon enough I hope it comes.

 

[Timmytoogood]

I have been taking Pentasa for over a year for my Crohn's. Two months ago I started to taper off from 2 grams daily down to a half gram over a 3 week period. My gut aches and diarrhea returned. I am now back to taking a gram and a half and my symptoms have vanished. So Pentasa seems to be working for me.

BTW I am now taking the cheaper Ferring Pharmaceutical Pentasa that I get from Canada. Buying drugs produced all over the world is always a gamble. This last batch, according to the sellers, was produced in Turkey. I read that worldwide as much as 15% of the prescription drugs sold are counterfeit. The OECD says 75% of those come from India, which is also the leading international source of legitimate pharmaceuticals. Chinese counterfeit drugs often are labeled "made in India."

 

[Mike_in_IL]

Seems like everyone is different on here and reacts differently to these medications. When I was first diagnosed with Crohn's Disease ten years ago, Asacol was the very first thing I was given. It worked for about a month and then abruptly failed and wouldn't work anymore (hence, why I had to go on Prednisone).

And after having my first flare-up in 8 1/2 years recently, I was put back on Asacol again and it didn't do anything. Now I'll either be trying Remicade again or starting Humira.

So for me, Asacol is completely useless.

Mike