Suggest Treatment For Ulcerative Colitis

Posted on Mon, 9 Feb 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Mon, 9 Feb 2015 Answered on

Thu, 12 Mar 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : My son was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis fourteen years ago. He was given IV infusions of a drug that put him in total remission. He hasn't had any trouble since then. A friend of ours is having the same trouble he did. I can't find the records, nor the doctor and I'm quite sure something new and improved has come along, but from my memory I want to say it was methotrexate. Could I be correct? Yet, nothing I read about UC even mentions it.

Answered by Dr. Panagiotis Zografakis (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Not for ulcerative colitis

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

nobody could guess what the drug was of course but methotrexate has been used for Crohn's disease which is a very similar inflammatory bowel disease. In ulcerative colitis though, no medical study has shown substantial improvement.
Perhaps you're confusing it for cyclosporine or 6-Mercaptopurine. Intravenous steroids have been used also.
The newer drugs (tumor necrosis factor inhibitors) were just making their appearance at that time, so I suppose it would be more likely that such an agent was not used back then.

I hope you find my answer helpful!

Kind Regards!

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar