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Sulfasaladine How much do you take?

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 2/10/2011 6:11 PM (GMT 0)
I went form mild to moderate in my UC my doc has prescribe only four pills a day two in the AM and two in the PM. When I was on asacol she wanted me on 9-12 a day. Is the sulfa much stronger? JW what you all were taking as dosage. Thanks
Posted 2/10/2011 9:27 PM (GMT 0)
I take 6 a day. Your doctor might be starting you off slow to see how much yu can tolerate. It can be hard on your stomach, so some doctors take it slow and build up from there
Posted 2/10/2011 9:40 PM (GMT 0)
The starting slow advice is correct. It has been shown to reduce side effects and lessen the chance of intolerance reactions. Headaches are a biggy as are rash.

The dosage on sulfasalazine is much lower than current high dose asacol because as dosage goes up adverse reactions climb. Asacol is much less likely to cause problems but sulfasalazine is probably more effective.
Posted 2/10/2011 11:57 PM (GMT 0)
My maintenance dose if I am doing well is 4, 2 twice a day. But if I am flaring I take as many as 8, 2 four times a day. My dad's UC is milder than my Crohn's and he goes into long periods of being totally symptom free and when he is that well his doctor only has him take 2 a day.
Posted 2/11/2011 12:18 AM (GMT 0)
does anyone know the limit? Is 8 the limit?
Posted 2/11/2011 1:15 AM (GMT 0)
Well I don't know the official limit and I have had 2 doctors in conflict about this, but I have taken as many as 12 a day. My old doctor had me go to 12 a day when I was in a flare and trying to avoid prednisone. My current GI says that it has not been proven to be anymore effective at doses over 8 a day and he will only prescribe up to 8 a day. So not sure who is right, when I was on 12 a day I did fine, I didn't notice any side effects and it did get things under control. But I wasn't on 12 that long, only until the flare was under control and then went to 10 and then 8.
Posted 2/11/2011 4:06 AM (GMT 0)
Twelve a day is the ceiling.  You can take more, but there isn't any proven benefit beyond that, and the side effects worsen.  My doc claims there's not much benefit beyond 10 but to experiemment with 12 if I want.

I'm taking 10 a day right now (5,000 mgs), five in the morning, five at night.  I haven't noticed any benefit to my colon, but it has helped with the UC-related joint pain, esp. in my hips and back.  I've definitely noticed a difference going from 8 to 10.

I had to increase slowly, though.  I got headaches from 6 to 8 and again from 8 to 10.  At first they were crushing headaches, esp. 8 to 10, but I alternated days, which made it better, and then they stopped.

Posted 2/11/2011 3:02 PM (GMT 0)
wWat great feed back, thank you! If I'm only doing two in the morning two at night, like 12 hrs apart, will two last 12 hours long, I wonder? It just doesn't seem to be enough. I take 2 at 8am in the morning and 8pm at night.
Posted 2/11/2011 3:12 PM (GMT 0)
My GI says twice a day is fine since it's systemic and topical (unlike Asacol etc.).

At any rate, if two pills twice a day isn't controlling your symptoms, then you'll probably raise the dose, and it's definitely better to get used to this med slowly.

My doc write scripts for about 1,000 pills at a time (with refills), so I can raise or lower the dose as I see fit without having to worry about getting refills, making office vists for refills, etc.  That gave me a lot of flexibility as I dealt with minimizing side effects.  From 8 to 10, I added one pill every other day for about a month, and that helped a lot.

 

Posted 2/11/2011 3:12 PM (GMT 0)
In my pharmacy info it says to not go more than 6 hours between doses. Now when I am on a maintenance dose of 4 a day, I just take 2 in the AM and 2 in the PM so that is more than 6 hours, but when I am on 6 or more for a flare I space it out by 2 throughout the day. So when I am on 6 I take 2 with breakfast, 2 with lunch, 2 with dinner. When I am on 8 or more it gets harder so sometimes I take 2 four times a day or will do 3 with breakfast, 2 with lunch, 3 with dinner.

My doc does my script like Seconder so I can raise and lower the dose as I need and not worry about running out.
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