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How many medications do people with Crohn's Disease take?

hey all,

anyone else here on only 1 medication for their IBD? or is that unusual? as it appears that a lot of people here mention being on multiple prescriptions... is it that the other prescriptions assist you with other symptoms like insomnia, joint pain, etc???

i'm currently on 1 medication... seems to be okay. i'm not a big fan of medication, and i think that doctors are often waaaay to quick to shove multiple prescriptions in your hand.... is it true that doctors get paid when they give prescriptions? if so, that would explain the eagerness to prescribe lol


i'm still in the early stages of assessment, but the only meds i've been prescribed so far are:

Predisone 40mg, for a few months... then tapered off onto Imuran 150 mg...

my rheumatologist tried to add another med - Sulfasalazine, as she thought that it may assist me even more.... but i told her that I'd prefer to wait a little longer for the Imuran to fully kick in (since when I saw her I was only on Imuran for 3 months, and noticed great improvements)....

she also prescribed a low dosage of prednisone as a prn, because she knew i had a little bit of an obstruction/flare up 1 or 2 times while on Imuran...

but i have stuck to Imuran, and haven't had a flare up for a while now... and haven't seen blood in my stools for a while too.
 
btw, another reason why i didn't want the Sulfasalazine is because the rheumatologist said it would increase the chances of me getting the same side effects as Imuran .... so like wtf ? why would i want it then? LOL.
 

My Butt Hurts

Squeals-a-lot!
I'm on 3 meds right now, but when first diagnosed I was on Sulfasalazine alone, and it did a very good job. If I remember correctly, I had to switch to asacol for breastfeeding, and that did a pretty good job for 1 1/2 years. I was on pentasa alone for a while and that was okay too. I swear I don't remember other drugs at that time. I have been on pred several times too, but not sure if was with those milder drugs. Cipro and Flagyl were more recent I think too.
So my short answer is yes - I was on only one drug when first diagnosed, and it lasted for over a year.
 
I was on just Asacol for a few years... eventually I got worse and had to go onto Imuran.
I was on nothing for a lot of years, but I went through a few flares, and in hindsight should have gone to the docs a lot sooner
 
I take Low Dose Naltrexone. One pill before bed time. I do take a few supplements that probably help.

I do not plan on taking any other medications.

Dan
 
i see.... yeah, hopefully i can get on track and get to understand this condition more... and once i learn more, take better care of myself... maybe do some naturopathic stuff on the side. ...just stick to one medication.

it would be nice to not be loaded up with more meds.
 
I wouldn't give a monkey's how many drugs I'm on... as long as it works and this flippin disease just goes away and not bothers me anymore.

I'm on other drugs for life anyway so it nae bothers me taking stuff.
 
I'm on nothing designed to treat Crohn's currently, whilst I wait for a 3rd colonoscopy and then transfer to Infliximab. At the moment I've just been advised to try and control my symptoms with the Elemental diet and Morphine for the pain. Plus some anti-spasmodics. I'm down to about 15 pills a day at the moment.

I have previously also been on Pentasa and Azathioprine, but neither of them proved to be totally successful and I was getting some unpleasant side effects.

I'm not totally bothered whether I'm on 1 medication or 20, if they're working for me that's all that matters.
 
Location
Wisconsin
Oh, to be on only one med again..................... I remember those days well. Unfortunately I'm on............I think 3 for Crohn's. Humira, Pentassa, and Folic Acid. I'm done with the pred (woo hoo!). The rest of them are for everything else I have. HA!
 
it's the side effects that freak me out. it seems like many of these medications have side effects that would actually give me symptoms WORSE than my crohn's symptoms.... or at least that's what it SEEMS like to me.

it's kind of a lose lose situation i guess.... to me, the best thing seems to be diet changes and if i'm gonna take drugs, maybe pain killers/muscle relaxers when needed... last resort.

i dunno.... guess i'm just frustrated and still trying to accept this stupid crohn's thing so i'm not in my right mind at the moment..... hate the idea of taking drugs for the rest of my life.... drugs don't cure anything, they just mask the symptoms anyway or do some other crazy unnatural chemical crap that does more damage to your body. (imo)
 
I'm currently on only 3g Pentasa; I stopped myself off Imuran 2 months ago. For the rest i take fish oil,a multivitamin and try to watch my diet. Also Tylenol for the occasional pain.
 

forum contributor

Captain Obvious
I'm only on Lialda right now b/c I've been skipping my butt rockets (Canasa). I'm supposed to be doing the Humira shots, but not til the fighting with specialty pharmacies stops, I guess.
 
J

JillianB82

Guest
I was only on 1 med, Entocort, for about 4 months. The Dr had me stop in mid June. The 1st weeks I felt awesome! Now, I'm right back to where I started. LOL

I do however take vitamins etc. on a daily basis.

I go back in a few weeks for a follow up visit. :)
 
thanks Pen, glad you get what i'm saying... and thanks to everyone else who replied.

only thing is, i'm nervous about discussing the med thing with my new GI..my first appt is with him in a few days.

i think i'll just ask him what he thinks about perhaps lowering my dose.

but i'm also scared that my body will freak out again.... i guess i'll have to see how it goes.
 
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