ULCERATIVE COLITIS TREATMENT
There is new hope for patients suffering from the gastrointestinal condition known as ulcerative colitis.
The disease can be severe, and often, treatment does not completely relieve the symptoms. Sometimes surgery is the only recourse for patients who suffer from ulcerative colitis.
Tommy Hess is 31, and it’s been a decade since he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. He’ll tell you first hand how bad this disease can be. “The stomach pain was severe. I had to have emergency surgery to have my colon removed,” says Tommy.
For Tommy, surgery was a cure for ulcerative colitis. Still, most individuals would prefer not to have their colon removed.
Ulcerative colitis involves inflammation of the lining of the colon and rectum and it is characterized by flares followed by periods of remission throughout a person’s life.
When it does flare, the patient can experience intense abdominal pain, cramping, and bloody diarrhea.
Ulcerative colitis affects people of all ages, but often is diagnosed during early adulthood. The average person with ulcerative colitis is usually in their late teens or early 20s, so primarily it’s a disease of young people. The causes of ulcerative colitis are unknown, but they may involve heredity, infection, an immune system problem, or perhaps all of these.
Dr. Lawrence Bryant, Chief of Gastroenterology at Montefiore Medical Center, says, “Patients don’t sleep well and they can’t enjoy their day because they constantly need to use the bathroom.”
Usually, ulcerative colitis is treated with an anti-inflammatory drug that is not absorbed, and acts topically within the colon to reduce inflammation. The most common one is called mesalamine, or Asacol.
Now, new research presented recently at a major gastrointestinal medical conference shows a double dose of mesalamine, or Asacol, is much more effective at achieving symptom relief. There were two sets of patients in the study. One set were given the standard 2.4 grams a day dose of Asacol, while the other set of patients were given double that amount of Asacol. 59% of patients taking the lower, standard dose had a successful treatment, compared to 71% of those on the double dose.
“It’s what we call a dose response curve, which correlates the dosage of the medicine with the effectiveness of the treatment. I think what’s most important now is to follow this up and see whether or not patients who might not have been compliant before are compliant with a new regimen,” states Dr. Bryant.
Researchers say if the treatment receives approval from the Food and Drug Administration, it will provide a new treatment option for patients instead of resorting to steroid therapies, which sometimes have harsh side effects.
Overall adverse events in the study were similar in both treatment groups. The most common side effects, namely headache, gastrointestinal symptoms, and respiratory symptoms, were consistent with respiratory infections or flu syndrome.
The pill is formulated into an 800 milligram pill, which means the patient only has to take six pills a day instead of twelve a day to get the total daily dose of 4.8 grams.
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