Personally, I felt WORSE while on MTX. I don't mean side effects (although they were so bad, I had to be taken off of it completely). I'm referring to my overall pain level and flares. I felt like my disease was worsening on MTX vs. getting any relief.

Well enbrel helped me and I had zero side effects from it. I haven't personally had a correlation between the two.
As a side note, as secret said, I have read several people states a certain drug caused their symptoms to increase.

Not really any strong correlations for me so far. Although I will admit if a drug makes me feel sick in other ways my tolerance for joint pain decreases pretty fast.

The best one that has helped me has had little to no side effects that I know of.

Interesting question!

For me, the biologic that didn't give me side effects has also been the most effective. Now, to bring in Captain Obvious to explain, "Yeah, dummy. That's because you've stayed on it." My answer would be, Yes, but." I was on Enbrel & Humira for six weeks each before having to stop. Many people for whom they are effective have had noticeable improvement by then.

I've done well with MTX vis-a-vis side effects, but I'm not sure about the effectiveness. I've never needed to go off it, which is the acid test.

MTX caused me the greatest side effects (breathing, pneumonia, fog, gastro even on injections) but i still stuck with it for over 2 years. during that time each time I came off it while hospitalized for pneumonia, the RA flared and rebounded unimaginable. there was my answer. NO, not immediately (it takes a while to treat my pneumonias and it took me weeks to reach the cumulative effect of no mtx while healing lungs) but eventually so many weeks out I became a pillar of salt. so there you go a beautiful double whammy. hosed my lungs regularly but it did effect my RA to a crappier degree to come off it.

finally I gave up. But I have solid journal memories of those times. and I am kind of glad cause they are a testimony to my attempt to regulate my RA with the cheapo go to med: mtx and for all of you for whom it works, you are right it does work, but for all of you for whom you have unimaginable side effects on it, right too :)

then there are the allergies: when your body tells you immediately to tell the drug see you later. those happen to be clear cut and make decision making clearer. the hives and the throat swelling.

then there are the lazy drugs: they do nuthin. conundrum there is continued pain and swelling and no abatement after the master plan was reviewed. back in to the script writer to try a new scenario. it's an interesting disease if nothing else.

Depot.

I was almost in remission on Mtx, but developed toxicity. Enbrel totally put me in remission with ZERO side effects.

I have been asking myself that same question for the past month. I too am on Methotrexate and Plaquenil and I'm thinking that it is making me worse not better, I unfortunately am not a candidate for the biologics so I am limited to what I can use. I am curious to see what your rheumy says
Stay strong
Bettina

i haven't been on meds for more than 9 months, but i stopped taking mtx three and a half weeks ago and don't feel any worse. my pain levels are about the same. i had some mild side effects when i started mtx but they subsided within about 3 weeks. i thought the mtx was helping a bit, but i guess not. i didn't have any luck with enbrel or humira, and had some side effects i didn't like on humira.

well the IV antibiotics take a week in hosptial. then I go home with 2 weeks of antibiotic at home either pic line or pills.

my worse rebounds off my RA meds occur at the 4 to 8 week mark off meds. before that time it would be easy to second guess that my meds did nothing so no big deal to be off them for lung treatment. also if I am using a steroid which masks symptoms for my lungs I write that down or if I am chewing nsaids.

this is different I am sure for every person on here, but this is my reality over 5 years. I recommend keeping it written down somewhere. i used to use stickies and shove them into a notebook. sounds second grade. but i would date them and write a note stick em on the fridge them shove them in a notebook later. this is when I am too sick to turn on the laptop. my fridge looks interesting also :)

depot

Yes good question & one I've thought of.
MTX made me sick for 4 days out of the week. After 3 attempts I gave up.
Enbrel gave me sinus headaches with most injections with respiratory infections perhaps 2-3 times a year. Yet it helped enough to remain on it.
Till I stopped working.
Hardest part for me was staying on a med that made me sick waiting to see if it would work.
These meds can be Double edge swords much if the time.
Sammy

I am on Plaquenil, MTX and Humira. i take 1000mg of folic acid plus women's vitamins and Super-B complex vitamins. knock on wood, i have had no side effects other than when i first started on the MTX I would take it on Thursday and sleep all day sunday. that lasted for about two months, and nothing since then.

i started on 4 MTX and take 8 now. We increased by one pill at a time and it would seem to work for the first 30 days, and then it would go back to status quo. so we knew it was working, but eventually the RA overtook it again. I asked my rheumy if that is normal and he says it's an indicator that we are not being aggressive enough. so i said let's quit messing around and be agressive. That's when i started on Humira, which finally seems to be helping after 4 months.

So, i guess the answer is, ideally the med would work without side effects. I am not sure if i would continue to take a med that helps the RA but causes me nausea - i am such a wimp about that. i can work through joint pain, but not through nausea or other GI upset.