Hi everyone, I’m seeing a MS nurse on Monday and I’ve been reading up on possible medications. My main concern is the potential effects on mood changes and the only injection is Copaxone that states there is no effect on mood but it is the only one that does not help with the prevention of the development of disability. Can anyone tell me how they have found Copaxone? I don’t take meds for depression but I do suffer with mood swings and PMT is awful! I would prefer to take an injection that helps with the long term disability but scared about potential mood changes. I have relapsing and remitting MS and have had 2 relapses in 12 months. Hope this makes sense, can’t change it. Difficult to concentrate!
hi sue
i’ve been on copaxone for 4 years, straight after diagnosis.
i havent had any side effects. injection sites cause problems for a lot of copaxone users but
if you take care of your skin it helps the needle to go in easier.
they have a helpline “connections” and they are excellent.
i didnt know that it didnt help prevent disabilty, i’ll as my ms nurse.
i’m in the throws of a UTI and worried about relapsing. it has really affected my mind and i feel like i’m getting dementia but thats normal for bladder infections.
citalopram is an anti depressant that is gentle and really sorts moods out. i refused anti depressants because i said “i’m not depressed” my gp explained that i would benefit from it even if i wasnt depressed.
good luck
carole x
Hi Carole, Thanks for the advice. The MSdecisions website only says that the medication ‘unclear that there is any impact’ on development of disability. It will be good to get some clarification on Monday. I’ll post an update. Hope the UTI clEars up soon
Hey Sueb,
Like you I researched the medications as I wasn’t sure about what route to go on in regards to treating my MS, I went for Copaxone after I was diagnosed in June, for 4 months as it was convient, had no side effects & you didn’t need to have regular blood testing.
I stopped it almost 2 week’s ago now as my neurologist said it wasn’t strong enough for me.
I didn’t find it effected my mood until It came to the time of night where I was having to inject myself mainly cause I was tired as I don’t sleep. You saying about PMT, when you’re first given your Copaxone it comes with a booklet which recommends contraception, I didn’t use any contraception & it hasn’t affected me at all.
Like Carole said, look after your skin it’ll help :).
Hope that helps you.
Feel better soon Carole.
Nicole. Xx
Hi, I suffer from clinical depression and anxiety and for that reason was only offered copaxone due the potential of the other DMDs to have an adverse affect on my already unstable mood… Been on it since 2009 and just one significant relapse in that time however recently had a second MRI as neuro was concerned re the effect this relapse has had. Still waiting on results but he mentioned the possibility of a second line treatment in addition to copaxone if there are changes in the scan as that would indicate that perhaps copaxone alone wasn’t effective enough for me. Not sure what this second line treatment is though…
Hi Nicole n Tay, Thanks for the advice, really helpful. What do you mean by look after your skin. I keep it clean but I don’t have any creams etc…?
Hi Sueb.
Copaxone? I picked it for the daily injection as being easier to build into a daily routine. Wish I had gone for it earlier.
I was told I qualified for DMDs in January 2011, and that I had a few months to make up my mind (while I was still inside the qualifying period. In those next few (6) months I had three minor relapses (thats minor to knock you out for a week, but not bad enough to get on the phone for steroids), In the 18 months since I started Copaxone, I have only had two relapses (one four months after starting, the second eight months after starting), so none since February.
Each relapse knocks you back a bit more that you don’t quite recover from, so I believe that if I had started earlier, I might not have the dropped foot problems I have now.
There was a debate here several months back about what “affecting the course of disability” and “affecting the course of the disease” really mean. My view is that reducing the number of relapses has to be seen as affecting the course of the disease, even if it does not repair any of the damage to the myelin.
The real downside to Copaxone is that you cannot currently move straight from it to Gilenya - NICE having decreed (in their infinite wisdom) that one has to be on an interferon-based DMD to get Gilenya. But, it seems to work for me, so I intend to stay with it as long as I can.
Geoff
Hey,
When you do your injection make sure the area is clean really. They say you should wash your hands before you inject. A few times after injecting a thigh or a hip I sometimes had a little bleeding so I aired it & washed the area. I never had to use any creams :).