Study on taking medication break around covid vaccination

[girli1111]

bbc.co.uk/news/health-59252739

I know this has been discussed a lot, so just sharing for information. It’s a longer term study and results won’t be known for a couple of years..... I plan to take a methotrexate break after my booster, it’s a personal decision, not advice For anyone else, but makes logical sense to me.

[springcross]

Hi girli1111. Thanks for sharing this.

[Madmusiclover]

Just saw this article on bbc news. Interesting. Thank you.

[Ascidian]

yes, I posted about this a couple of days ago because my rheumy department are taking part. However, they haven't been very good at letting people know - just a post on their facebook page.(Hopefully they are at least telling people who go in for consultations.) So if you haven't had your jab and would like to take part in the study, it may be worth asking your rheumy department if they are involved

[Ascidian in reply to Ascidian]

Although if you are already planning a mtx break, then you may not want to (like me), as you wouldn't then have the choice

[Paula-C]

I stopped taking my meds (mtx and enbrel) around all of my three vaccinations even though when I had the first and second vaccination advice was to carry on taking our drugs. I just thought it was silly putting two drugs into my body that suppressed my immune system when the covid vaccine relied on my immune response.

[wishbone]

I had a letter from my rheumy telling me to stop baricitinib for 2 - 3 weeks after my 3rd vaccine. I'm sure I can recall one or two members rheumys advising them to pause their meds for the first 2 vaccines. They were well ahead of the curve by the seem.

[Paula-C in reply to wishbone]

My consultant told me December 2020 that from a clinical point of view it was best to have a window of 5 weeks either side having the vaccination but we couldn't do that because we'd flare if we did.

[ihatebeetroot]

Makes sense to me that the vaccines might work more effectively if you took a break from Methotrexate but the worry is that you might then get an RA flareup. I wasn't advised to stop when I had my booster jab a couple of weeks ago so I continued and came down with a cough and cold but at least it wasn't Covid and my RA is still well controlled.

[girli1111 in reply to ihatebeetroot]

Absolutely, I’m not recommending anyone to go without their medications, and my rheumy team are still giving the advice to continue with meds, but I thought people might find the idea of the study interesting.... I’m taking the personal decision to stop my meds before and after my booster