Multiple Sclerosis Treatment

There are a variety of FDA approved drugs to treat this disease. All of these agents have been shown to slow down the progression of the disease and to reduce the number of attacks.  Each of these agents alter the function of the patient’s immune system.

For relapsing remitting MS there are four FDA approved agents. Three of these drugs are interferons which is a chemical our body naturally makes during the course of an infection. These are delivered as injections and include B-seron, Rebif, and Avonex. Most of the people who takes these drugs have some side effects but they are usually manageable.  The other class of drug for relapsing remitting MS is copaxone. Copaxone is a small piece of ther myelin molecule which is injected daily.

For secondary Progressive MS a chemotherapy agent, Mitoxantrone, has been shown to slow down the progression of the disease as well.

Other agents are used in some cases including IVIG (Gammaglobulin), plasmaphresis, or other chemotherapy drugs. However none of these agents have FDA approval.

There are also numerous drugs available to help control the symptoms of MS, even if we cannot reverse the damage. Pain, numbness, dizziness, incontinence, and fatigue are very common symptoms in MS and all of these have effective drugs that can improve these symptoms.  Because of this it is important to follow with neurologists who are accustomed to treating MS.