What is LDN?

[Crohnswife]

My husband is still suffering from this current flare up of crohns. It started right after memorial day. Went to the ER multiple times b/c his dr wouldn't give him pain meds. Spent a week in the hospital on IV steroids. He started getting better but is kind of back tracking again. We can't shake it this time. Hes on 60 mg prednisone. Anyways, see people mentioning LDN and wonder what it is? If it was something we should look into or what?:sign0085:

 

[Kev]

LDN is an acronym for treating IBD (UC, CC or CD) with low dose Naltrexone. A report was published in the American Journal of Gastro-enterolgy early in 2007 of a study by Dr Jill Smith of Penn State Univ. for treating mild to moderate IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) with low (4,5mg) doses of Naltrexone. It isn't widely known, and many doctors consider it a controversial treatment. I started on it in Nov of 2007, and to date, it has kept my IBD under controll. The big benefit of taking the LDN approach is that it lacks the side effects typical of the traditional drugs. We have a lot of info on this site about LDN, and there is another site dedicated to treating various illnesses with LDN called the lowdosenaltrexone.org site. It isn't ideal for everyone, and it doesn't work 100% for all who try it, but it does have a success rate equal to any of the various other drugs that one might take for IBD. I don't think I've overstated the case for considering taking LDN