Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives Anti TNF and other biological medications Psoriasis caused by Enbrel (etanercept)?

Hey all, long time lurker first time poster.

I'm 26 and have had severe AS my whole life, but only got properly diagnosed when I was 24 (yay New Zealand public health system). Since then I've recovered fairly well, but was put onto enbrel 7ish months ago. I've since developed psoriasis.

I haven't managed to see the dermatologist yet but will in a couple of weeks. My doctor recommend to go off the enbrel in the meantime as it was spreading.

Does anyone know if the psoriasis will go away now I'm off enbrel, or am I stuck with it for life?

I moved to a small country town to work on my health and have improved to the point where I was ready to move back to the real world and start my life again, but psoriasis on my scalp and face will make this a little more difficult.. I'm back on NSAID's, cut out eggs and dairy, moisturising my skin like crazy and getting sunlight when I can in a hope that I can make this go away.. quite gutted really.

Any help would be much appreciated..
Thanks!

I was on Enbrel for 9 months before switching to humira. On Enbrel my previous and seldom, periodic mild psoriasis was made worse. Confirmed by my docs. I was told people with more agressive forms of A.S. often have that happen. The doc gave me a steriod in the form of spray-foam, and cleared it right up with repeat aplications.

Hi there AudioKiwi, I live in Auckland NZ. I've never taken any biologics (although my Rheumy tries his best to get me on them) so I can't offer anything there. Interesting that you moved to a small town to heal. My long term intention is to move away from the city (maybe 15 years time - currently 41). Some would say the environment you surround yourself in has a part to play. I'm also interested in moving closer to the equator as I have heard interesting things about how that can effect ones health with the longer sunshine hours. I notice in summer my inflammation is less than in low light winter.

I had a terrible heart reaction during an infusion with Remicade and I also had anemia (blood disorder) from Remicade and Methotrexate. Every med has a side effect, some side effects are just worse than others. Sometimes if you remove the offending med, the symptom goes away, so hopefully your psoriasis will go away.
Have you tried taking out the starches in your diet? I felt so much better when I took out starches , dairy and nightshades. Hope you feel better, take care.

you might want to check out www.earthclinic.com for remedies for psoriasis . Maybe www.doctoryourself.com will have some suggestions too,not sure ? I like earthclinic.com because the people post their responses if a remedy worked or not.

Hi Audiokiwi. I'm a Kiwi too, living in Wellington.
I haven't had that side effect but have read that it can happen.

What does your rheumatologist say - is there any chance of maybe switching to humira?

Hi ValsMum. I'm going through the heart issues with Remicade right now. What were your symptoms and did they go away? I've been really dizzy and have lots of irregular heartbeats and have been to ER quite a few times.

Hi Timo,
I understand AS will affect the heart valve. Can you explain the heart issues with Remicade you are facing now?.
Regards.
Jay

Hi Jay. The past month I've been having skipped beats and feeling lightheaded and really dizzy. Irregular heart beats all day long but I just handed in my 24 hour heart holter so that should show more detail.
It happens now when I even just start walking, a sudden rush to the head. Lasting nearly 9 hours today with no relief so I'm sitting in ER hoping for some answers. They've said before that all the tests were annoyingly normal. What to think? I have no idea.

I haven't managed to see my rheumatologist yet - it takes a while to get an appointment. There is a chance I can switch to humira so we'll see. I'm debating whether to move to Wellington now.

I cut out everything that could probably cause it - coffee, dairy, eggs, enbrel etc. It went away with the help of some steroid cream and moisturiser. It sucks going back to not being on enbrel, life has been hard. I had some eggs the other day and had a psoriasis flare up within a couple of hours so I think it's an egg allergy. I caved in and had an enbrel shot and seem to have no bad reactions so far. Feeling better but I think I'll need another week of exercise, stretching and getting some sleep.

Weird, as I've never had a problem with eggs before. It'll be interesting to see if I get on himura after this.

Yes I'm very strict on my diet. I haven't added dairy back in but I used to be fine with it. Starches I don't have anything with more than 0.1% starch (although I never had a problem with starch on enbrel). Nightshades are always a no.

As long as my gut is repaired, my gut bacteria in check and exercise kept up I'm fine with low starch on enbrel rather than no starch. I've never tried high amounts of starch or any of the food additives etc yet as I don't want a flare up.