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Has anyone stopped taking Imuran/azathioprine?

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Posted 12/18/2010 10:21 AM (GMT 0)
Has anyone stopped taking Imuran (azathioprine) before?

How long were you on it for before stopping? and how long did it take from the time you stopped before you started noticing any effects?

Were there any noticeable effects after stopping? do you know how long it took your body to become completely clear from Imuran after stopping?
Posted 12/18/2010 6:31 PM (GMT 0)
What other meds are you on at this point?

What's the extent of your UC?

What are your symptoms and why do you want to go off imuran?

q
Posted 12/18/2010 7:02 PM (GMT 0)
Good questions I would like to know as well. I'm not on immuran, but my GI was considering this for me.
Posted 12/18/2010 8:02 PM (GMT 0)
quincy, I have been in remission for nearly 1.5 years now (after changing my diet). Imuran was the last of the medications I was on. I wanted to stop Imuran a while ago but my doctor felt nervous about my symptoms returning (he is not really convinced about the merits of my diet). As I compromise I agreed to taper it off. It has now been a week since I had the last tablet, and have not had any adverse effects as far as I can tell. I was loose for a bit a couple of weeks ago but I think that was just due to a bad cold I was going through. I've had good bowels since, so was just wondering if I am now safe or will it take a while before Imuran is actually completely out of my system.
Posted 12/18/2010 8:41 PM (GMT 0)

I am wondering the same thing.  I have been on Imuran for the last two years and I am in a solid remission and have been for some time now, over a year.  I pushed my doc to agree to lower the dose.  I started at 200 mg and dropped to 150 mg with no adverse effects.  I have a small patch of inflammation in the rectum and I am using Canasa to treat that.  We will do a flex sigmoid scope this spring and see if that patch has healed.  If so we will consider lowering the Imuran again to 100 mg.  It is my hope that I can control my UC with just rectal suppositories.  We shall see.  Thank you for sharing your story.

MyUC

Posted 12/18/2010 9:29 PM (GMT 0)
I'm not stopping unless it stops working! My doctor says it takes about two weeks to wear off.
Posted 12/18/2010 10:06 PM (GMT 0)
     I was on 6MP for seven years.  After taking it along with prednisone for the first three months (it took that long to kick in), I did enjoy a two year remission.  Then I started to flare yearly, then every six months.  The doctor increased my dose but my bilirubin results were double the normal.  When I was admitted to the hospital in 08, my pancreatic enzyme levels were extremely high.  My GI doctor became alarmed and took me off the 6MP.  The following month my enzyme levels had returned to normal and he placed me back on the 6MP at 50  mgm instead of the 100.  I still felt like crap.  He took me off the 6MP two weeks to my starting Remicade, it failed, as did Humira.

     I had my total colectomy and end ileostomy on June 28th and never looked back yeah .

     I do have a friend who was on 6MP for ten years.  It kept her fully in remission.  The doctor took her off the 6MP six months ago and now she is starting to bleed.  This disease has no rhyme or reason.  Everyone is different.

Posted 12/19/2010 2:55 PM (GMT 0)
Is someone in Remission if they are taking pharmaceuticals prescribed by their doctors? Perhaps medicated remission should be the term used. No?
Posted 12/19/2010 2:59 PM (GMT 0)
I was on Imuran for 1 1/2 years and when I went off of it I saw no change in anything. I had no reaction no symptom change.
Posted 12/19/2010 3:36 PM (GMT 0)

baconeggsyum said...
Is someone in Remission if they are taking pharmaceuticals prescribed by their doctors? Perhaps medicated remission should be the term used. No?

 

 

 

The only time I wouldn't consider someone in remission is on prednisone..or high treatment dosage of 5ASA and can't get to even every second night.  The disease has quiesced, yes...but maintenance should be a lower dosage and that state maintained and pred should be tapered to off

Regarding the immunomeds...the point of them is completely different..if it doesn't work to get one into a remission..it doesn't work, therefore cannot be used for a remission...my opinion. 

Posted 12/19/2010 4:07 PM (GMT 0)
I think that so long as they aren't on prednisone, they are in remission. This is because the other meds (even "big gun" ones like Remicade) are supposed to be used as maintenance drugs, but prednisone is not.
Posted 12/20/2010 11:33 PM (GMT 0)
I've been on 50mg of Imuran (azathioprine) combined with allopurinol for the past 2 years and doing good, no signs of bleeding and feeling good. I decided I wanted to get off the meds about 6 weeks ago to see how it would go. Last week I started to notice blood in my stool again and feeling overall not the best in the digestive system. I started back up on them last night so hopefully it will kick back in in a few weeks and I'll be back to good. I don't like the idea of being on meds but I would rather feel good and risk the possible long term side effects then be sick all of the time.
Posted 10/16/2012 7:20 AM (GMT 0)
Hi, I've had severe colitis that put me in the hospital for a month 4 years ago. They gave me a pick, one dose of remicade and I've been taking azathioprine along with mezzavant (anti inflammatory) ever since with no problems at all. Never noticed any side effects.

I decided against my doctors opinion to try to go off them a few months ago. BAD IDEA. Three weeks ago boom. Came back. Now I'm struggling to get it under control. Prednizone for 6 weeks and back on the old meds. It'll take up to 12 weeks for the azathioprine to start working again :(

I hope this works.

Don't go off it...
Posted 10/16/2012 2:29 PM (GMT 0)
I can understand your desire to drop prescriptions and hope that diet only can keep you in remission. In reality I don't know how true that end result would be. The one main thing I have taken away from this site is that each flare gets harder and harder to treat and that you need to do something at all times to remain in remission. You are rolling the dice and gambling if you drop the meds and hope diet alone will do the trick. If I were in your shoes I would continue taking 50mgs Imuran for the rest of your life unless you experience side effects from the drug which require you to drop it.
Posted 10/16/2012 2:32 PM (GMT 0)
i stopped 6mp (for the second time) about 1 week ago. my neuropathy is lessening a lot now and 6mp was causing it to go up my legs. it wasn't helping my UC symptoms so that's why i felt fine stopping it. i don't get any withdrawl symptoms.
Posted 10/16/2012 2:54 PM (GMT 0)
I've been on Imuran for over 8 years. I've stopped/started many times, and have gotten to a 50mg dose which seems to work great.
I've stopped taking Imuran while in remission to attempt to be drug free with no problems, but had to restart when flaring.
The longest I was off Imuran was 6 months, it felt great to be off meds and i prefer to keep the meds in reserve for the bad flares.
Posted 10/16/2012 7:42 PM (GMT 0)
Imuran and 6MP can take 4-6 months to begin kicking in therapeutically, although obviously if one stopped and symptoms came back, and one hadnt been off too long, i assume they kick back in faster. Side effects by contrast can begin much more quickly. The only conventional med which both works well and causes me (at low doses anyway) to *feel* no sideeffects- is the much reviled pred. Indeed i have come to notice that if i were to just stay at 5 mg pred forever, i'd be living close to symptomand flare-free for life. Now, if i could just find the trick to get rid of that final 5 mg... I'd behome free. Imuran, even at subtherapeutic doses, makes me sickly, fatigued, gave me bursitis, and didnt do more than slightly dampen my UC. Probably will get jpouch soon but i should get my cortisol level checked- if its normal with 5 mg pred than i am not toxic, IMO, as that (very high blood cortisol) not the pred itself iswhat causes pred to be declareda non-maintenance drug. Would rather be colon free though than sickly the way i felt on imuran.
Posted 10/16/2012 10:23 PM (GMT 0)
I'm stopping today! I was on it 16 days and sever pain in the stomach or pancreias My lipase is very high 800+
Posted 10/16/2012 11:05 PM (GMT 0)
I just stopped it after 7 years of taking it. It was no longer effective. It was definitely a huge help and kept me in remission for many years.
Posted 10/17/2012 1:09 AM (GMT 0)
I was on it for about 3 years and it worked great. Had a pretty bad flare this summer and started on an trial drug that is infused once a month. They did stop the Imuran and all I am taking is the trial drug. If this doesn't work I am probably having the surgery but we'll see. My flare has gotten better but I would not call my current state in remission. I have not had any adverse affects from stopping the Imuran. It was a miracle drug for me when I started it. I think it is what allowed me to keep my colon another 2.5-3 years.
Posted 10/17/2012 4:51 AM (GMT 0)
I didn't notice any side effects when I got off of Imuran but my GI said that it takes a full 3 months for the Imuran to build up in your body and also a full 3 months for it to fully leave your body.
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