Enbrel, methotrexate, worsening pain

ehbraunMember

i started taking a combination of methotrexate and enbrel about 10 weeks ago, for joint pain related to Crohn's. My pain has worsened, and feels a bit different. Swelling feet, sore muscles, knots in my neck, and so on. Sacroiliac is even more tender than before, I haven't been able to find any reason this combination would make things worse. In the past, methotrexate (at a higher dose than I take now, but without enbrel) at least took the edge off, although I still had significant pain. I see the Dr next week, but wanted to hear from you here before my appointment. I'm having significant pain!

4/15/161:13 PM

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CTBarristerMember

The joint pain issues you have are related to autoimmune disorder. Crohn's is just another manifestation of autoimmune disorder, but you can have Crohn's with no other autoimmune manifestations. Which appears to be the case with me.

I am taking methotrexate 12.5 mg per week, along with Remicade. I was told it was a fairly low dosage. My office manager who has Rheumatoid Arthritis (another manifestation of autoimmune disorder) was on 15 mg methotrexate for 3 months but stopped because she said it wasn't helping her symptoms. In my case it's mainly being taken to enhance the effects of Remicade, which it does by preventing its excretion from the body.

4/15/161:22 PM

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Jan DollarModerator, RN, retired

I would suspect that the Enbrel is simpy useless for you. It probably did not make it worse, but your arthritis is advancing despite it. Fortunately, you can switch to a biologic that is effective for both IBD and inflammatory arthritis. I went from Embrel to Humira to Simponi to CImzia to Remicade (soon).

Things did not get worse for me on Embrel, but it was not very effective at all.

Jan