Posts Tagged ‘Nausea’

Treatment for Crohns Disease

04.29.10

Crohns Disease treatment is a life-long commitment, as this chronic condition is marked by flare-ups and remission periods that sufferers will unfortunately be forced to deal. Crohns Disease symptoms, and possibly one or more stays in a hospital.

All of that works together with the general stress of life to affect the course of your disease. When it all combines together — you get fatigue. You feel tired, listless. I know. I’ve been there. Proper Crohns Disease treatment is crucial, and it is important to learn everything you can about this debilitating condition.

The goal of medical treatment is to reduce the inflammation that triggers your signs and symptoms. In the best cases, this may lead not only to symptom relief but also to long-term remission. Treatment for Crohns disease usually involves drug therapy or, in certain cases, surgery.

Doctors use several categories of drugs that control inflammation in different ways. But drugs that work well for some people may not work for others, so it may take time to find a medication that helps you.

In addition, because some drugs have serious side effects, you’ll need to weigh the benefits and risks of any treatment.
Anti-inflammatory drugs
Anti-inflammatory drugs are often the first step in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.

They include:
• Sulfasalazine (Azulfidine). Doctors have used this drug for many years to treat Crohns disease. Although it can be effective in reducing symptoms of the disease, it has a number of side effects, including nausea, vomiting, heartburn and headache. Don’t take this medication if you’re allergic to sulfa medications.
• Mesalamine (Asacol, Rowasa). This medication tends to have fewer side effects than sulfasalazine has. You take it in tablet form or use it rectally in the form of an enema or suppository, depending on which part of your colon is affected.
• Corticosteroids. Corticosteroids can help reduce inflammation anywhere in your body, but they have numerous side effects, including a puffy face, excessive facial hair, night sweats, insomnia and hyperactivity.

More serious side effects include high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, bone fractures, cataracts and an increased susceptibility to infections. Long-term use of corticosteroids in children can lead to stunted growth.

Also, these medications don’t work for everyone with Crohns disease. Doctors generally use corticosteroids only if you have moderate to severe inflammatory bowel disease that doesn’t respond to other treatments.

A newer type of corticosteroid, budesonide (Entocort EC), works faster than do traditional steroids and appears to produce fewer side effects. Entocort EC is effective only in Crohns disease that involves the lower small intestine and the first part of the large intestine (ileocolitis).

Corticosteroids aren’t for long-term use. They can be used for short-term symptom improvement for about three to four months. They’re also used in conjunction with other medications as a means to induce remission.

For example, corticosteroids may be used with an immune system suppressor — the corticosteroids can induce remission, while the immune system suppressors can help maintain remission.

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Crohns Disease Medication

11.13.09

Treatment for Crohns disease depends on its location and severity, the presence of complications and the patient’s response to medications. The goal of treatment is to reduce the inflammation that triggers symptoms. Treatment relieves symptoms and results in long-term remission.

Treatment for Crohns disease usually involves medication and/or surgery.Drug therapies must be custom-designed for each patient. Finding which medications best alleviate the symptoms may take time. When a patient with Crohns disease undergoes surgery, it is important that the health care team (including the surgeon, anesthesiologist, and the primary treating physician) know which medications the patient is taking. Many patients with mild to moderate disease are treated with medications containing mesalamine.

These medications differ based on what parts of the bowel are treated. The use of mesalamine to treat Crohns disease, either to achieve or maintain remission, is sometimes controversial because not all studies have consistently shown that mesalamine is effective for Crohns disease. Mesalamine is usually well-tolerated and has no serious side effects. Patients may experience nausea, headache and diarrhea.

Some patients who have severe active disease or do not respond to mesalamine therapy may need corticosteroids such as prednisone to control inflammation and induce remission. These drugs are effective but have significant side effects, such as increased susceptibility to infection, mood swings, anxiety, depression, elevated blood pressure, glaucoma, cataracts and osteoporosis.

Physicians may use different strategies to administer these drugs in order to reduce side effects. Budesonide is a corticosteroid that is rapidly broken down by the liver, resulting in a much lower frequency of side effects. These medications are gradually reduced once remission is achieved — and mesalamine or a drug that suppresses the immune system is used to maintain remission.Antibiotics such as metronidazole are sometimes used to treat Crohns disease.

They are particularly helpful in patients with fistulas and are often combined with other medications. The use of metronidazole to treat active Crohns disease or to delay the recurrence of Crohn’s for the first two to three years after an ileum resection surgery is often controversial because not all studies have consistently shown that metronidazole and other antibiotics are effective in these patient groups.

Metronidazole can be effective in managing perineal Crohns disease (involving the pelvic area). Many patients require surgery because medical therapy does not control their symptoms or because complications such as blockage, abscess, perforation or bleeding into the intestines have developed

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