Antibiotic Treatment for PA?

[obikwa]

I was wondering if anyone reading this post has tried, or knows of someone who has tried, antibiotics to treat PA? I am presently taking Enbrel, but am looking around at alternatives.

roadback.org is an interesting site, but very RA-centric, not much on PA. Also, it sounds like most rheumy's aren't too keen on antibiotics as a treatment (antibiotics sound a bit problematic and don't provide the relative "instant" gratification that MTX or biologics sometimes do).

Just curious!

Obikwa.

[ouchyk]

Hi,

Early on in my PA adventure I was on minocycline 2x a day for arthritis. If you read www.arthritis.org you will actually see it being used in early RA ( not PA ). It's not FDA approved for inflammatory arthritis. I didn't do the protocol that is used in the roadback foundation, but did follow my rheumy's advice and gave it a whirl. He said it had anti-inflammatory properties, however I don't believe he fully bought into the foundations theory.

If you go here http://www.arthritis.org/conditions/drugguide/chart_dmards.html you can read a lil more about minocycline.

Anyway, it did help me slightly with inflammation, but I quickly progressed to the point where I needed something with a lil more kick to it.

Karen :)

[obikwa]

Thanks, Ouchyk. My impression seems to be that antiobiotics help in varying degress, whereas the more potent drugs are a little more deterministic. I appreciate the feedback!