When managing your psoriatic arthritis, taking your medications and following your treatment plan is vital to staying in remission. But there are still some patients who don’t follow their doctor’s recommendations and suddenly stop taking their prescribed meds.
However, before skipping your next dose, it’s best that you talk to your doctor to discuss why you want to stop your meds. This way, you can work with your doctor to address your issues. With that said, below are the most common reasons people stop taking their psoriatic arthritis medications and why it’s a bad idea.
You’re Just Not Satisfied with Your Medications
Regardless of your reason for being dissatisfied with your meds, you will probably consider stopping taking them. It is, however, very crucial to note that there are other drugs you can choose from. Try to work with your rheumatologist or orthopedic surgeon here in Highland first to see if you can find other medications that might be better for you.
You’re Already in Remission
You wake up one day and realize that you’ve been pain-free or have been feeling minimal pain for a month now so why bother continuing your meds? Unfortunately, if you don’t keep taking your meds, your symptoms will eventually return with a vengeance.
You Missed a Dose
If you are on methotrexate and take it once a week, you could easily restart your schedule. If you’re on a biologic and miss an injection, inject it the following day or until your next scheduled dose.
Don’t worry, missing a biologic dose won’t lead to a flare-up. If you’re the type of person that forgets to take meds as scheduled, set an alarm on your smartphone as a reminder.
Your Meds are Just Too Costly
Even if you have adequate insurance, it probably won’t cover all your medications and other therapies. Again, consider taking up this matter with your doctor. He or she can recommend alternative medications that you can afford or help you get in touch with relevant assistance programs to help you with the costs.
You Can’t Stand the Side Effects
If every time you take methotrexate, you feel side effects like a headache or upset stomach, you might able to have your dosage reduced until your body builds up a tolerance to it. You can also ask your doctor if you can take certain supplements like folic acid to help with the side effects.
You’re Leaning Towards Natural Medicine
Doctors are generally okay with patients trying natural modalities for their psoriatic arthritis symptoms. The thing is, there’s not enough evidence to support whether or not they really work. Likewise, some natural treatments might cause interactions or interfere with your medications.
So before adding natural treatments to your standard procedure or going the natural route, check with your doctor first.
Put simply, a lot of things can go wrong when you go off your psoriatic arthritis medications like biologics or DMARDs, disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. That said, if for some reason you want to stop taking your psoriatic arthritis meds, just please consult your doctor first.
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