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I have been on Enbrel for 2 years and it has done wonders for my joints, truly life changing. PsA impacted me far more than Ps so the focus has been on the PsA but I still have outbreaks of Ps that are annoying, to say the least. My dermatologist prescribed Otezla to be taken along with the Enbrel.
I do not fear biologics, and do not consider them toxins. I am looking for comments from those who have tried Otezla alone, and especially when combined with Enbrel.
Has anyone tried combining Otezla with Enbrel for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis?
It's great that Enbrel has been so effective for your joint symptoms! Adding Otezla to target remaining skin symptoms is an approach some dermatologists use when a biologic controls PsA well but psoriasis persists.
Otezla works Show Full Answer
Thank you, @A MyPsoriasisTeam Member and @A MyPsoriasisTeam Member! My dermatologist warned me about the GI issues. He said they were common, but that most of his patients do tolerate it. He said if I can tolerate it I would see considerable benefit from it.
CVS Specialty has had the scrip almost a week now and the "pharmacist has been working on it" that whole time, so I may never actually get it!
I started my treatment for plaque psoriasis on Otezla starter pack too, it did work for me but unfortunately my appetite was gone within a week and I started loosing weight I had the headaches and upset stomach but the most alarming for me was my potassium levels I was at 2.3 which is dangerously low I was told to go straight to the hospital for treatment and taken off of otezla immediately. I also was getting very depressed. I wasn’t taken anything else just the Otezla my dermatologist said my potassium levels were rare he has never had a patient with that side effect before me.
I can personally say I was shocked within about a week of letting my plaques psoriasis look like it disappeared no itching no flaking on otezla.
Now for the breakdown in bad part for some people including myself. Had to stop it because around that week's time at the end while the patches looked gone and it was wonderful my gut was just felt like it was being ripped apart. I couldn't get off the couch I had to go to the bathroom repeated it wasn't good.
Some people they claim can get headaches from it and loss of appetite. The appetite loss came with it for me also. Could barely eat anything. I don't know why it just made me react like that except it was hard on the gut so maybe that's why I didn't eat much? It says it can cause rapid weight loss for some people and if it does you have to let the doctor know. People think that's good they said but if you lose too fast it's not good.. I guess that affects muscle mass then?
I got my appetite back and my gut was relieved within 2 days after stopping it but back came some patches. I guess you got to say which is the worst to tolerate. I didn't get the headaches fortunately. My doctor tried to have me stay on it because he said within 2 weeks you should adjust I just couldn't make it through after that first week. I have IBS though so anybody with a sensitive gut should avoid it. That's my review 😵💫😁
I was started with a starter pack you start with 10 mg and then you graduate to 20 and then by the third day you're on 30. It was by The fourth day I said this isn't so nice with my gut now. I tried to get lower dose but the doctor wouldn't do it he said you have to start with a starter pack like that. So beware when you increase the dosage is when you might start to notice some reaction whether headache, appetite loss, or gut response?
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