The MS Wire

News, info and tips for living with multiple sclerosis

Tag: DMTs

The Latest Advice on COVID-19 and MS

COVID-19 and MS

The Multiple Sclerosis International Federation (MSIF) has issued new recommendations about how the coronavirus pandemic might, or might not, impact the lives of people with MS. The MSIF, a network of national MS societies from around the world, first issued recommendations about COVID-19 and MS last spring. But much has been learned about the virus since then, including how it affects people with MS. The new recommendations address whether MS leads to complications with…Continue Reading

COVID-19 and MS Treatment Recommendations

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written about the impact that COVID-19 is having on people with MS. Since then, the picture has changed — not a lot, but enough for the MS International Federation to modify its observations about, and recommendations for, people with MS and our disease-modifying therapies (DMTs). The treatment equation for COVID-19 and MS is complex because of the dynamic nature of the way this…Continue Reading

MS Meds or Food: A Tough Choice

ms meds or food

Forced by medication costs to choose between regularly taking their medications or buying groceries, some people with multiple sclerosis are choosing the groceries. Some are skipping doses and others have stopped taking their disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) entirely. This troubling news is reported in a survey by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS). The results show that about 40 percent of those surveyed have skipped or stopped taking their DMTs because…Continue Reading

Are You Willing to Accept More Risk Than Your Neuro?

Weighing risk

As more high-efficacy disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) are being made available, people with multiple sclerosis have to decide how much risk they’re willing to accept in exchange for the treatment’s potential benefits. It’s a tough decision, not made any easier if a patient’s neurologist is unwilling to accept much risk. According to researchers at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany, when it comes to one highly effective DMT, patients are…Continue Reading

Making the Right MS Medication Decision

Making right MS medication decisionn

An MS medication decision is one of the most difficult decisions for someone with MS and their neurologist to make. After 39 years with MS, and with four disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) on my medical chart, I’m definitely on the hit-it-fast, hit-it-hard side of that treatment decision. So, I was pleased to read an article in Brain & Life magazine reporting that “doctors today are less likely to wait to start…Continue Reading

MS medication decisions need guidance

MS medication decisions

More than 15 MS medications, or disease-modifying therapies (DMTs), are available in most countries to treat MS. DMTs come in the form of injectables, infusions, and pills. Some are new, others have been around for more than 20 years. Some have a greater possibility of serious side effects than others. Some DMTs are highly effective at slowing or stopping disease progression; others, not so much. It’s a difficult choice to…Continue Reading

Debating Whether to Stop Your MS Medication

Thinking about changing your M S medication

I see a lot of reasons why people stop, or refuse to start, an MS medication. “Thinking of stopping the…meds. Sick of the shots and how they hurt to take them” “I stopped all of them….all multiple times. It takes too long for an appointment and I tapered off “ “Half the s**t will kill you” “My body and my choice” “The side effects are worse than the disease” Forty…Continue Reading

Hit MS Hard and Fast, Suggests New Study

Hit MS

How quickly to start a disease-modifying therapy after an MS diagnosis is a question that I frequently see when browsing online. It goes hand in hand with which DMT is best to start with. There are many things to consider when making that decision. Here’s a study that may help you weigh the benefits and risks hitting your MS hard and fast. Any DMT is better than none The study,…Continue Reading

Treating MS: Should Efficacy Trump Ease of Use?

MS treatment

There are more than a dozen disease-modifying therapies available for treating MS. Some are shots, some are infusions, and some are pills. Some are more effective than others. The marketing intelligence company Spherix Global Insights regularly surveys which of these treatments are being used by neurologists and what’s influencing their selection. Here’s what the latest Spherix quarterly survey shows about what’s being prescribed. Just over half of the 100 neurologists…Continue Reading