Recently diagnosed with ms

[cityems]

Hi My name is Judy,
I was recently diagnosed with MS. I'm 35 and have a 4yr old and 13 yr old. I have been given a choice of two meds to start. Avonex or rebif. Can anyone help me as to which one i should choose?

[Westgrl]

Hi Judy! I was just diagnosed last year, I was 36 at the time.

The 2 medications are the same but different doses. Avonex you inject once a week in the muscle. Rebif you do 3 times a week under the skin.

Avonex currently has a pen for injection and Rebif just approved one but I don't think it's available yet.

I went with Avonex because I get anxiety over sticking myself with needles & with the pen, I can't see the needle. The pen also has a smaller needle. So, no anxiety which makes the process so much easier for me!

Injecting into the muscle sounds worse than it is, I barely feel it. I also liked that I would only have to do it once a week as opposed to 3 times.

If you end up experiencing side effects with this medication, I don't but many do, then that may be a reason to go with Avonex as well. Only have to experience them once a week.

If one doesn't work out for you, you can always switch. Since the medication is the same, it's more of a personal preference on the way you inject & how often.

[kryptonite]

I was on Rebif in 2011 and you do inject with a pen. My side effects were mostly flu like symptoms. I took it before bed and the symptoms were gone by afternoon the next day. Rebif left lumps under my skin so I was put on Avonex. I had my first injection yesterday. The first 4 injections have to be done without a pen but it wasn't bad at all. Not sure about the side effects until I get to the full dose.

[TLC_31]

Here in the Avonex room I suspect we will be biased toward Avonex. Be assured that on average, both medicines have similar efficacy and side effects (which usually can be mitigated), and both are time-tested with strong safety profiles. As long as you can maintain your injection schedule and not miss doses, you really can’t make a wrong choice. Westgrl is correct in that you can always switch, although if your first choice was intolerable or ineffective I suspect you would switch to a DMD that isn’t an interferon. (And I’m curious why your choices are narrowed to these two to begin with.)

I have used Avonex since April 2004 (although in late 2011 I took seven weeks off to try Gilenya). I hate needles, and so I wanted to minimize dealing with them, and I went with the once-a-week therapy. Yes, the needles are longer, but I accepted that tradeoff, and I’ve had no regrets. So many times after injecting, I’ve asked myself what I was so worried about.

The Avonex Pen was unavailable at the time, and I certainly would have chosen that, although now I don’t bother switching to it because my significant other is happy to give shots. I haven’t self-injected in more than a year; I still hate shots, but they’re more bearable. One factor in your decision might be whether your 13-year-old or another person can be trained to give you shots of one or the other. That might make more injection sites available to you, and you could take a break if you were felling unusually sick or tired (from MS or anything else).

A synopsis of all the disease-modifying drugs is here: http://www.nationalmssociety.org/abo...nts/index.aspx

Ask questions anytime!

[kryptonite]

I don't think I'm biased toward Avonex. I HATE them all equally.

[BigA]

I agree with what TLC said. But were you offered copaxone?