I am not diagnosed. But I know it is a possibility. I am waiting for my mri. I just want to know, does ms medication actually ease symptoms? So you should improve once on them? If I have it I am going to kick it’s arse!!! (Excuse me being so blunt).
Kick it’s bottom!
There are different types of medication, and they do different things. One type, called disease modifying drugs (DMDs) are aimed at reducing future disease activity, but these do NOT address existing symptoms - or reverse any damage that has already occurred. These drugs can only be prescribed by certain specialist neurologists. There are other drugs for symptom relief. MS has many potential symptoms, so there are many possible symptom relief drugs, depending what problems the patient has. Symptom relief drugs can mostly be prescribed by a GP, and don’t need a specialist neurologist. They don’t have any effect on present or future disease activity, but can help to make existing symptoms more manageable, and improve quality of life. There can be some trial and error involved in finding the right symptom relief - e.g. for pain - as what works well for one may not for another. So sometimes you have to be open to trying something, on the understanding it may not necessarily work, or you may not get on with it, due to side-effects. If this happens, there is usually an alternative you can try instead. Tina
:-/ Can you go on DMD’s and a gp subscribed med to reduce symptoms?? I’ve read ppl saying they feel so much better on a medication/DMD…
Hi Mrs Whiskerson,
Yes, of course - assuming you qualify for a DMD (not everybody does).
It’s not an either/or decision. You can certainly be on both a DMD and symptom relief, and a great many people are. There are no adverse interactions that I know of. It’s just two separate aims of medication: you might be doing one, or the other, or both.
Tina