Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Group

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem, autoimmune disorder. It is a disabling and painful condition which can lead to substantial loss of mobility due to pain and joint destruction. The disease is also systemic in that it often also affects many extra-articular tissues throughout the body including the skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs, and...

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lionprincess00 01/03/2014

How long did it take to see some improvement? Pamphlets state arava can take up to 12 weeks to help. Methotrexate began working within a week and had me virtually pain free by week 2. Headaches got out of control unfortunately so I'm on arava now. Day 3 with zero improvement. So how long did it take you?
Side note, rheumy is leaving month of Feb and said if I'm not improving by my next appt in 2 weeks, we are switching to orencia or humira...so I assume arava should show some signs of improvement fairly quickly??

Tia!

deleted_user 01/03/2014

it is just day 3. i guess it needs some more time to work. at least 2-3 weeks to see some improvement. Good luck. hope it works.

havent been on arava. starting remicade next month. hope it works.

lynnedavidson3 01/03/2014

I have been taking Arava for about six months. I was told it would take three to six months to fully kick in. I guess it is working, unfortunately, I started a new biologic six weeks ago. It is always something.

deleted_user 01/03/2014

i was on arava for about 3 months and ended up being allergic to it. Wasn't a bad allergy just hives could have been coincidental I'm a pretty hivey person ha. But i wasn't seeing much improvement on it so my rheumy switched me to embrel which I've seen improvement on in the past month and a half or so. Methotrexate took me 6 months. Hopefully you find relief soon.

Angelpuss 01/03/2014

Arava takes at least six weeks to kick in, more likely is 3 - 6 months.
I'm surprised your Rheumy would change to something else after just three weeks.

lionprincess00 01/03/2014

Seeeeee, that was my initial thought after reading the information on arava. I read up to 12 weeks for any symtom relief AND here she started my Tuesday...the what was it, new yrs eve???? And here she says keep my next appt Jan 16 ( I was flaring horribly and went in early Tuesday) and she wants me to keep my Jan 16 appt to see if I feel any improvement.

Then if NOT, since she's out of town, in her words, almost all February, she will switch to humira or orencia injections then...to get control before she leaves town.

This is why I asked this post to begin with. If the information all stated up to 4+ months for improvement, why only 2 weeks?

Thanks for all information and personal experiences!

Andromeda2 01/04/2014

I've been I Arava for over two years now. I noticed a difference quicker than I thought I would. After two weeks I was feeling a little better. After thirty days I really noticed a difference. But it wasn't enough on its own. I had to add a biologic, cimzia, to the mix. That made a big difference!

deleted_user 01/04/2014

I am on arava 20 mg since Aug. and humira injections were added in Dec. No improvement yet, unfortunately.

Sunvalleygal 01/04/2014

Ive been on Arava for a month now.. I can't tell that it's doing anything....

lretz 01/04/2014

I've been on Arava for almost 8 weeks. I haven't noticed any difference yet. Just started humira because things were getting quickly worse, and couldn't wait for it to kick in.

deleted_user 01/04/2014

It took 9 weeks before I saw improvement, it's a slow working drug, give it time. Best wishes.

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