Remicade Withdrawal

Has anyone else that has been suddenly taken off Remicade, experienced strange side effects/withdrawals? I've been feeling pretty ****ing funky over the last few days, not to mention the fact that I think I am getting my 1st case of the flu/cold in a year.

On a positive note...,my derm has determined my spontaneous outbreak of psoriasis was in faact caused by the Remicade. Hopefully my hair will grow back soon, and skin will return to normal. Remicade induced psoriasis. Go figure.

I am not sure by what you mean by "suddenly taken off" of Remicade. Many paople have stopped taking Remicade for a variety of reasons. They have an infusion, and then when it is time for the next one, they don't have it. There is no withdrawal per se. Rather one might begin to have a return of symptoms. In my case, my Crohn's remained in remission but I could definitely feel a return of my joint and tendon problems.

Now if you meant that an infusion was suddenly stopped because you were having a bad reaction, then yes, you might be suffering symptoms related to the bad reaction. Usually, a bad reaction during an infusion will warrant treatment with some medication, usually an antihistamine or prednisone.

I also developed an outbreak of psoriasis, which I had not had (except for one small patch at the base of my spine) for 20+ yrs. It did get better after my initial doses, and then was off 2 mos. before beginning remicade. Funny thing is the patch I had for so many yrs is gone. I also had the high bp and rapid pulse and a drop in my B12 level with neuro sx. I started my B12 every 2 wks and then the humira, now I think my level is lower again. I had it drawn Thurs. It did heal up a sm abscess/fistula on my perineal area and I suspect it healed up some inflammation in the resected area, because now I am having some ruq discomf,with meals

Wow I didn't know that it was listed as an adverse effect. Crazy how a med can treat and cause the same disease.

I have attempted to get off remicade twice.  I wanted to try to get off remicade in the summer of 2007 and for six months while under a doctors care I did not get infusions, I formerly took 500 mg of remicade every 8 weeks.  I experienced major withdrawal symtoms, headaches, body aches, anxiety, depression, loss of appetite, weakness, fatique, racing thoughts, sleep interuption, insomnia, fear and panic attacks, weight gain, mood swings, inability to focus, loss of joy, suicidal thoughts, being overwhelmed by details of life, panic, headaches, a change in bowel habits, high blood pressure, heart racing, hot and cold changes in body tempurature and extreme tiredness after exercising, walking mostly. My PCP thought I was depressed, when prescibed zoloft, the symtoms did not go away and seems aggravated. I was barely getting through the day and had few to no good ones.  I am physically functional but mentally and emotionally overwhelmed. My doctor did extensive tests and discovered I was depleted of vitamins and minerals and would go on a regimented program to rebuild my body's nutritional needs with organic supplements, which I asked for, synthetic drugs have side effects and are not really body friendly for me. This has happened to my twice, I have just decreased the dosage of remicade and the same thing is happening.  there was not warning, about withdrawal, I recognized it myself because I am a Substance Abuse Counselor and these are many if not all of the signs and symptoms of Drug or Alcolhol withdrawal.  I welcome sleep, I struggle with day to day life and I have a loss of confidence which effects social activities.  Well it does sound like depression, however, depression and all of these symptoms are withdrawal conditions. Being a woman I attributed my withdrawal  symptoms as menopause and proceeded from there. I have been struggling with this for almost 2 years.  I am also the daughter of an Alcoholic and have a tremendous sensitivity to any drugs and therefore have taken very few over my life because the changes and sensations they cause are very uncomfortable for me. 

holy heck

Post Edited By Moderator (Nanners) : 8/20/2009 7:19:40 AM (GMT-6)

have any of you faxed your medical papers to the lahey clinic in boston or florida
and have any of you faxed any of your medical papers to the cleveland ohio clinic who really specialize in this type of thing,
they did a intestional transplant is what is said and recently 2009
just do more research someone out there knows something
i truly beleive more then 50 0/0 of my daughters issue are with ADHESIONS read on that and see if that is your issue, she had adhesions on the 1st surgery every where so i think the adhesions are squeezing her guts out and that is what is causing all the inflamation she is on remicaide, pentasa predinone STOPPED THE 6MP ALMOST KILLED HER AFTER 1 MONTH really sick benydl all the time
since the medical field doesnt deal with adhesions they have no answers for it they blame other things, i read to have crhons you have to have granulomas and none was found but yet still say that, so she has adhesions and that is bad it itself
RESEARCH PRAY RESEARCH PRAY RESEARCH AND PRAY MORE KEEP IT UP AND ONE DAY WE WILL BE BETTER FOR IT AND TEACH THE MEDICAL FIELD SOMETHING
BUT please when someone writes in here dont tell them you never heard of such a thing, the doctors tell you that you dont need to hear it from your peer support, we all need to encourage one another and RESEARCH RESEARCH AND we WILL BE FIND SOMETHING WE WILL STUBBLE ONTO SOMETHING hopefully sooner then later
mary maine

My doc is taking me off Remicade. I hope I don't have withdrawal.

fyi
a newspaper article was talking about vomiting of all subjects and said steroids, prendisone will shut down your ADRENAL GLAND we all need that to live
if you are vomiting see your homopathy person ASAP
if you dont have one go to your local health food store and ask them who they know of as that is their business, or you can call all your chiropractors to see who does CRA (CONTRAL REFLEX ANSASLSIS) THEY CAN FIND YOUR ADRENAL OR NOT FIND IT if they dont find it of course its shut completely down and will cause vomting
i heard this before, my daughter has been vomiting since last nov 08 and i forgot about that adrenal gland and when her homopathy person checked her she was still on steroids and didnt get a reading as they say so she will get back on her adrenal supplement and hopefully that will stop !
check this out asap all of you that is vomiting even if steroids arent your issue it could be another drug causing same issue
love and prayers (God i hope this helps tons of people!!)
mmpearls48

CALL A HOMOPATHY PERSON AND YOU CAN TAKE SUPPLEMENTS FOR THE ADRENAL AND BE A LOT BETTER A LOT SOONER,
THESE ADRENAL GLANDS CAN SHUT DOWN FOR A LOT TIME AND NOT FUNTION, AND YOU REALLY NEED IT TO WORK TO FEEL BETTER,
MY DAU HAS THE SAME MEDS AS YOU AND SHE HAS FATIGUE BAD AT TIMES AND OTHER TIMES SHE IS JUST FINE, BUT WHEN THE FATIGUE HITS HER IT HITS HARD,
MARY

I have read several post about remicade withdrawals an I really think its something there to the topic....also I'm a 34 year old male who has been struggling with this disease for years an yet I have no relief. But the one thing that I have found to be remarkable for me is that my signs an symptom's all resemble RAT POISIONING! yes I've said it RAT POISION, I don't want to start any false alarms for anyone. But what I have found out is that Crohn's is the breakdown of the immune system, further more if you look closely at the side effects of rat poison you will see crazy similarities. They have alot of fancy medical terms for all of the new disease's out here so who knows what is really happening to the millions of people who within these last years has developed these issues. For instance back in the early 70's the F D A did not regulate the advertising of products,Which they couldnt... so it was easier to come into contact with this deadly compound. Alot of produces looked alike an if not carefully marked this is when it all begins. I urge anyone with CROHN"S to try the vitamin K its hard to get an also follow the directions very carefully, cause this stuff is really potent an can kill!!!!!!!! The human body is doing its best to contain this toxin that intensifies the body's on self defense mechanism, this is why you'r constantly having so many unrelated symptom's And also a lot of this drug was use in other chemicals back from the OLD WARS!!!! This is not a joke an not a vague message just a chilling reminder to consider the obvious...... Facts! I will not go further into details just start at the root of the problem, Could Crohn's be a effect of a poisoning? Just read this article an yes its about animals and if any of you have had kidney stones this may be possible. This chemical breaks down the same exact vitamins that CROHNS does in the body the same way an form, so why isn't possible?

Hypercalcemia
Calciferols (vitamins D), cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) and ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) are used as rodenticides. They are toxic to rodents for the same reason they are beneficial to humans: they affect calcium and phosphate homeostasis in the body. Vitamins D are essential in minute quantities (few IUs per kilogram body weight daily, only a fraction of a milligram), and like most fat soluble vitamins, they are toxic in larger doses, causing hypervitaminosis. If the poisoning is severe enough (that is, if the dose of the toxin is high enough), it leads to death. In rodents that consume the rodenticidal bait, it causes hypercalcemia, raising the calcium level, mainly by increasing calcium absorption from food, mobilising bone-matrix-fixed calcium into ionised form (mainly monohydrogencarbonate calcium cation, partially bound to plasma proteins, [CaHCO3]+), which circulates dissolved in the blood plasma. After ingestion of a lethal dose, the free calcium levels are raised sufficiently that blood vessels, kidneys, the stomach wall and lungs are mineralised/calcificated (formation of calcificates, crystals of calcium salts/complexes in the tissues, damaging them), leading further to heart problems (myocardial tissue is sensitive to variations of free calcium levels, affecting both myocardial contractibility and excitation propagation between atrias and ventriculas), bleeding (due to capillary damage) and possibly kidney failure. It is considered to be single-dose, cumulative (depending on concentration used; the common 0.075% bait concentration is lethal to most rodents after a single intake of larger portions of the bait) or sub-chronic (death occurring usually within days to one week after ingestion of the bait). Applied concentrations are 0.075% cholecalciferol and 0.1% ergocalciferol when used alone.

There is an important feature of calciferols toxicology, that they are synergistic with anticoagulant toxicants, that means, that mixtures of anticoagulants and calciferols in same bait are more toxic than a sum of toxicities of the anticoagulant and the calciferol in the bait, so that a massive hypercalcemic effect can be achieved by a substantially lower calciferol content in the bait, and vice-versa, a more pronounced anticoagulant/hemorrhagic effects are observed if the calciferol is present. This synergism is mostly used in calciferol low concetration baits, because effective concentrations of calciferols are more expensive than effective concentrations of the most anticoagulants.

The first application of a calciferol in rodenticidal bait was in the Sorex product Sorexa D (with a different formula than today's Sorexa D), back in early 1970s, which contained 0.025% warfarin and 0.1% ergocalciferol. Today, Sorexa CD contains a 0.0025% difenacoum and 0.075% cholecalciferol combination. Numerous other brand products containing either 0.075-0.1% calciferols (e.g. Quintox) alone or alongside an anticoagulant are marketed.

Although this rodenticide was introduced with claims that it was less toxic to nontarget species than to rodents, clinical experience has shown that rodenticides containing cholecalciferol are a significant health threat to dogs and cats. Cholecalciferol produces hypercalcemia, which results in systemic calcification of soft tissue, leading to renal failure, cardiac abnormalities, hypertension, CNS depression and GI upset.

Signs generally develop within 18-36 hours of ingestion and can include depression, anorexia, polyuria and polydipsia. As serum calcium concentrations increase, clinical signs become more severe, manifesting often via anorexia, vomiting and constipation in the pet. Inability of the kidneys to concentrate urine is a direct result of hypercalcemia. As hypercalcemia persists, mineralization of the kidneys results in progressive renal insufficiency.

Additional anticoagulant renders the bait more toxic to pets as well as human. Upon single ingestion, solely calciferol-based baits are considered generally safer to birds than second generation anticoagulants or acute toxicants. A specific antidote for calciferol intoxication is calcitonin, a hormone that lowers the blood levels of calcium. The therapy with commercially available calcitonin preparations is, however, expensive.

This is my first time on this forum and my first time posting anything anywhere so please forgive me if I ramble on.  I have been on remicade and methotrexate for chrohns for 4 years now also anti-depressants and anxiety med for panic attacks.  My last infusion was in February 2012.  Around the end of April of this year I was rushed to ER I thought it was a blockage so was tested for that but nothing could be found.  The last test I was given was CT scan which showed a large mass of cells in my abdomen.  I was told to stop remicade and methotrexate immediately which I did.  I had a biopsy on the cells turns out I have lymphoma.  After reading some of the withdrawal symptoms here which I was told remicade had none I am also feeling very depressed and panicky with lots of the same symptoms I read other people have had now it makes me wonder how great this drug really is.  Four years ago I just had crohns which was bad enough but now I also have depression, anxiety, panic attacks and last but not least lymphoma.  Thanks for letting me get that out.

I have been diagonsed with crohns disease since new years day of 2010. Was repeatedly in and out of my local clinic for g.i. issues for 4 to 5 years prior to this, and misdiagnosed with i.b.s, given some nexium and sent on my way. It wasnt until a complete blockage happened after a weeks worth of holiday food was not gking anywhere that i ended up in the emergency room. I have read about remicade for years and was trying to remedy myself naturally with a little help from my doctor, with entocort, some prednisone once in a while and trying to come up with the magic recepie as far as food that i can digest more easily. It got to the point where the arthritis and fatigue and depression was starting to ruin my life so bad i had to subject myself to this poision.
I have had 4 infusions now and they have gotten worse every time. The first one worked like a charm, i was excitwd and thought maybe there was an end in sight for some of the struggles. Second round was a little different, as i could feel what felt like withdrawl setting in a week or so before i was due to get another one. The third time i had my first reaction during infusion. My head became hot and blurry, face all flushed and could not breathe well. The nurse injected steroids and slowed the i.v. down and continued the infusion. Last week i was pulled off of it when the same thing happened, but after slowing down and getting rid of the same hot reaction i had an extremely cold one. With complete loss of muscle control chills and shaking, teeth chattering and spasms. I now am experiencing heavy withdrawl. Very similar to the ones i had after having the post op. Pain pump in the hospital. This stuff is very dangerous to some of us. I dont know where to go from here, feel lost.