Imuran and fatigue?

[drew_wymore]

Hey All,
I started Imuran on Tuesday along with Prednisone. I'm having alot of trouble with fatigue. I talked to the pharmacist tonight and she said its very normal. For anyone else who is on or has tried Imuran and not had a bad reaction, did you suffer from fatigue at the start of treatment? How long did it last before your body adjusted?

 

[callypat]

I take 100 mg. Imuran dailyfor about 4 or 5 months now. Not sure if my body adjusted or just learned to live with it. I am very tired every day starting around 2. I usually try to lay down if I can, but it's not always possible. I take my Imuran and some other meds that I know to make me sleepy before I go to bed. This seems to help.

 

[drew_wymore]

Thanks Cally. I hadn't thought to take it before bed, mostly because I've just started therapy so I wanted to make sure if I had a bad reaction that I was awake and that if I needed help from friends, family or doctors they'd be awake and I could hopefully avoid an adventure to the ER. I'm awaiting baseline blood work to come back and then my dose is getting upped.

I'll probably start taking it at night as you suggested and that'll probably help out greatly.

Thanks again =)

 

[callypat]

Your welcome, I hope it helps.

 

[Shane]

Hi Drew, I did have a bad reaction (pancreatitis) in week 3 of treatment but...

In the first 2 weeks I seemed to have the opposite experience, I had more energy and life in me than I'd had for a long long time, I felt great. Seems strange that I had such a fast and dramatic change in energy just for it all to go horribly wrong just as quickly. The great positive early effect made it all the harder to bear when I did get pancreatits from it. I don't know if maybe it was psychosymatic or if it had something to do with the formulation of the drug (see my post for UK Azathioprine users). This isn't any help I suppose but, I just thought I'd share the experience with you.

Good luck,

Shane

 

[MarkyB]

Drew, I've been on Azathioprine 150mg for over three months now and I am constantly tired. I have very low energy levels. I don't know whether it is the Crohn's, the drugs or a combination. I only have to do the shopping or go for a short walk and I am wiped out for the rest of the day.

 

[drew_wymore]

@Marky

I had lower energy levels before I started Imuran and then it got lower as I started taking it. I'm only taking 50mg right now but I'm also on 40mg of Pred which normally makes me, as most others, the energizer bunny which is why I was concerned about what was going on.

@Shane

I really hope that I don't get something further down the road. I've been flaring for a year straight. I read the post to the UK users and I really hope it was just a bad batch (I'm sorry you got sick, that really sucks).

 

[lamor32twigs]

Hi Drew,

I have been on Imuran for years and do have fatigue because of it.
I recently had my dose increased and that really affected me as well.
I think I have gotten used to it over the years, but it surely is a factor.

Sharon

 

[DarrylP_Ajax]

I'm currently on 250mg/day of Imuran, does make me tired when i wake up, but once the blood starts circulating and i get some food in me it generally goes away fast, but definitly makes the first 10 minutes of the day really hard to get moving. Convienently it appears the Imuran isnt going to work for me anymore though, so my Imuran days might be over, at the maximum dosage i can take of the stuff and my body has decided that it no longer wants to be affected by it the drug since its basically doing nothing, starting to make me think i am taking a placebo, lol....as far as the tiredness goes, i have been on it for a year and the tired in the morning symptoms havent changed.

 

[Kev]

I was only on imuran for a few short weeks, before it became toxic for me. But I've experienced severe morning fatigue long before, and long after it. The only reprieves I've ever had from this was while on pred (and it was more like I was manically motivated by the pred to do something, anything, regardless of whether I had the actual energy to do it or not). Was on pred for 48 weeks in a row... When I started taking LDN, my morning fatique left in no time... and stayed away except for a brief relapse (think it was flare, and if so, then I'm not sure what it says for the LDN treatment. Like, why a flare... but, on the positive note, this was the only flare that went away w/o me having to increase or add to my list of meds.. a confusing scenario)

Anyway, w/o getting side tracked into the possible pros and cons of LDN, my only (meager) contribution to this thread is that morning fatigue is a big part of this disease, I had it w/o imuran/azathioprine playing a contributing factor... and the prescence/absence of this fatigue may be more a case of certain meds (like pred)... Having said that, it is a form of chemo therapy, so fatigue is probably a factor anyway... just think it may just multiply the fatigue due to the disease, and not be the sole cause. just another WAG, OK

 

[drew_wymore]

Hey Kev,
Yea I was tired before but it seemed to increase once I started taking the Imuran and hasn't let us since. I too, have had the manical episodes on pred and thats what I was anticipating but instead I almost feel worse then I did before seeing the GI the first time. I opened another thread about that whole shenanigans. I had a good chat with him yesterday though and we're moving forward quickly with some other alternative options, therapies and tests.

I need to read through the other therapy diaries. I'm started wondering if there was fatigue associated with Remicade and Humira as well. We'll see what happens over the course of the next few weeks. I think I'll be coming off the Imuran and I'm going to be keen to see how much more energy if any I do have.

 

[ruthymg]

Hi Drew, I have taken Imuran/Azathioprine for years now and it definately makes me tired. The tiredness hasn't, in my case, got any better with time either. I kind of have a love hate relationship with Imuran (see some of my previous posts!!) it would be ok to be with less pain but more tired if we didn't all have lives to lead lol




Ruth

 

[drew_wymore]

Thanks for the note Ruthy and everyone else. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy. I know most of us are tired to begin with because of the disease process itself but I felt even more tired and wanted to make sure I wasn't feeling something that wasn't there.