Hookworm treatment

[Joanbraithwaite]

Hi has anybody out there tried Helminthic therapy. Crohn's has yet again flared up and Humira has stopped working.
Any feedback would be welcome. Regards Jo

 

[valleysangel92]

Hello there, I don't have any personal experience with hookworm treatment but I have heard nurses talking about it when I was in hospital, at the time it was a limited trial but the results looked promising. I'm not sure what the end results were though.

Just so you know, I put your thread in the treatment section in the hope that more people with this knowledge will see it.

 

[VeganOstomy]

Sorry, but should look for another therapy option.

Worm therapy is ineffective for ibd

http://medcitynews.com/2013/11/coronados-crohns-bowel-disease-treatment-discontinued/

 

[Queastor]

I have a neighbor who went through the trials at Iowa University 10 years ago who said it put her into remission. It's come back 10 years later now though. They might still be doing trials there on it so if you have active crohns you might try contacting the university.

 

[nogutsnoglory]

There was some promise in these trials but the latest big trial
was a flop. I don't know if they will investigate this further but I hope they do. It seemed so promising.

 

[seaofdreams]

Sorry, but should look for another therapy option.

Worm therapy is ineffective for ibd

http://medcitynews.com/2013/11/coronados-crohns-bowel-disease-treatment-discontinued/

Hmm.. I don't think it's entirely fair to say that all helminthic therapy is ineffective for Crohn's. It certainly looks like this particular type was a bummer though.

It's interesting. This looks to be the study that the article above was referring to: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23730956 The patients were given one large single doe and it showed no promising positive effects.

This study however, held in 2004 shows some potentially promising results but the patients were given many smaller doses over a period of 24 weeks:http://gut.bmj.com/content/54/1/87.full

 

[VeganOstomy]

Hmm.. I don't think it's entirely fair to say that all helminthic therapy is ineffective for Crohn's. It certainly looks like this particular type was a bummer though.

It's interesting. This looks to be the study that the article above was referring to: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23730956 The patients were given one large single doe and it showed no promising positive effects.

This study however, held in 2004 shows some potentially promising results but the patients were given many smaller doses over a period of 24 weeks:http://gut.bmj.com/content/54/1/87.full

Here's more info on that article I linked... the study was much larger than the "single dose" one you posted.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Gastroenterology/InflammatoryBowelDisease/42805

"The committee conducted a second interim analysis of 240 patients who had been treated for 3 months in a phase II study conducted by Dr. Falk Pharma GmbH.

Coronado chief executive officer Harlan Weisman acknowledged that the company wasn't surprised at the disappointing results, because its own double-blind trial, TRUST-1, of helminth treatment in Crohn's also had shown inadequate efficacy."

The much older study you linked, which showed positive results was one done on a few dozen patients, but it wasn't a double-blind study, and even the researchers acknowledged that "... the study was open label, and we cannot exclude a high placebo effect."

I should also point out that only 5 of the 29 people in that small study were not taking medication - everyone else was still on meds ranging from steroids to mesalamine to imuran to a mix of drugs. It's entirely possible that those who felt better were just responding to their original therapy and since this was open label, placebo would play a part in any positive results. Four of the 29 had to leave the trial because of "ongoing disease activity".

I personally wouldn't chance such an experimental and unproven therapy if my disease was anything more than mild.