Crohn's and psoriasis

I have Crohns and psoriatic arthritis, but never had psoriasis until about 8 months after my 3rd child was born. I was taking Humira at the time. I didn't have breast feeding issues to deal with because I weaned around 9 months so I don't know if I can offer any advice. I have tried several different biologics to help the Crohns and arthritis, also hoping that they would help the psoriasis. None of them really helped it until I tried Enbrel. It took one year for my psoriasis to get under control and in the mean time, my Crohns flared and it only mildly helped my arthritis. I have never had any success with topical creams. Some biologics like simponi actually caused my psoriasis to worsen.

I have recently started Stelara for Crohns, arthritis,and I'm hoping it will keep the psoriasis in remission as well.

If you are still breast feeding, you might consider something like a biologic because the molecule is usually considered too large to pass through to breast milk, but it depends on the med. it depends on ow severe your psoriasis is and what measures you want to take.

I don't blame you for being hesitant to switch meds. You don't want to rock the boat because it would be worse to have a Crohns flare than a psoriasis flare. It could be from stopping the remicade and giving the psoriasis a chance to "wake up". It could be that you need to move on to a new biologic for your crohns, but now that the psoriasis has come into play there is the potential there for the new biologic to irritate the psoriasis. Simponi caused my psoriasis to flare terribly, but Cimzia actually helped it a little bit. I totally understand how irritating and itchy the psoriasis is. I'm sorry the light therapy doesn't seem to be helping. Thats such a bummer.

Does your doc have any advice? What does he think you should do? Have you tried any topical creams?

I'm so sorry. I really struggled with it for a long time so I feel for you. I had it the worst on my legs and lived in the south, so I wore jeans all the time and felt sorry for myself. Honestly, the only thing that made it go away was taking Enbrel for a year. I only did it because my Crohns was in remission and I felt like I could switch over from the Cimzia without any major repercussions. That being said, if your Crohns is active a doctor will not recommend that for you because enbrel is one of the biologics that is known to do absolutely nothing for Crohns.

I wonder if stelara could benefit you. It is labeled as a psoriasis drug. It's a biologic. It also happens to help psoriatic arthritis and Crohn's disease. It is not FDA approved for Crohns yet, so a GI might have a hard time getting it approved for Crohns, but a dermatologist could get it for you in a heart beat. They just have to fill out the right wording on the approval forms. Are you onHumira right now? Or only thinking of taking it? Stelara works through a different mechanism of action than the other meds like remicade. Instead of blocking inflammation through TNF-alpha blockers, it goes through something called Interlukeins 12 & 23. If remicade, Humira, etc. don't work for you any more, this med could very likely be approved because you would be consider to have "failed" that other therapy.

I suppose that is a whole can of worms that you're not sure if you want to open or not, but since you are on a biologic anyway and you need something to treat ALL of your illnesses, this seems like a drug that could make it a "win" all the way around if you think your docs would go for it.

Xtrac excimer laser treatment....anyhow, will try to find out more from my doc:)

Thank you and I will. Take care for now:)

My daughter just added psoriasis to her list of diagnosis's. I attribute it to the humira, but who knows. I have it, albeit very mild for the last 15 years. the topical creams seem to help. I agree with PV, probably the best way to go.