lialda, does it work as well as the other 5ASA's?

I am seeing more people switching to a new asa, and I am wondering how lialda compares with it. It's the 2nd medicine they put me on, the first one (asacol) gave me horrific cramps and bleeding. I am tolerating the lialda ok, but I can't get down from 3 pills a day, and my doctor said 2 pills a day is the maintenance long term dose. Is this a normal experience? I have been on it for almost a year.

I'm on Apriso, which is similar to Lialda in that it's a once-daily mesalamine. The maximum daily dose is 4 pills/day, but I'm not sure what the suggested maintenance dose is. At any rate, I asked my doc about reducing my dose as I'm now in remission (mostly so that I have the ability to increase my dose if I start to flare), and he said he'd like for me to stay at this dose until I'd been in remission for at least a year because it was tough to get me into remission, and then we'll re-evaluate. He also said that studies show that with mesalamine drugs, the higher the maintenance dose, the longer patients tend to stay in remission.

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Status: Remission since late May 2009!

Hi - I don't know about other medicines but I am taking 4 pills a day of the Lialda and have been for some time now...it is the only thing that helps me with maintenance...I have not heard that 2 pills a day is the normal maintenance dose but I know I am on the highest dose my doctor feels comfortable with...if there is something new that works better with a lower dosage I would love to learn about it. I hate taking four a day!

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Dx 2006 right after the birth of my daughter

So I'm so confused, if some of you are in remission from meds and UC is a autoimmune disease, being on the meds that get you into remission does that help your immune system to stop fighting the body? I'm just wondering or is it when you get off the meds the immune system get back into it's old self? Or being on the anti inflammatories give your immune system a chance to calm down? I once was told all my UC was gone by a scope and I got off meds after 6 weeks and then it reappeared 3 days later. I always had urgency when they said I was in remission. I'm just asking b/c I would consider Lialda if that helped the immune system slow down.

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Very mild left sided (could have fooled me with the "mild")  UC. Started LDN ON 1/25/09, stopped LDN on 5/1/09 didn't seem to help. Supplements: Probiotics, Cipro antibiotics 4/29 for 8 days seemed to help a little. Bad diarreah in the mornings about a hour of "dumping" no meds at this time for UC. I take Bentyl as needed, lomotil as well.

Hi Linda.....it does treat the inflammation itself which allows the body time to recover and not continue to react....if that doesn't work, then the immunosuppressants have to also be used to deal stop with the immune reaction response, not the result of the reaction.

The less the body has to deal with, the better it is...it also helps keep the area calm, and hopefully, the body might not react as readily since it's not as readily responsive.

clear as mud..yes?

q

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No, Lialda and other mesalamines keep the inflammation under control. The immune systme is still "attacking" the colon and the mesalamines fight the inflammation it causes. Drugs like 6MP, Imuran, and biologics act on the immune system. And even if a colonoscopy shows no symptoms, the UC isn't really gone. The symptoms are just under control because of the meds.

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Status: Remission since late May 2009!