Anyone use/tried Leflunomide(Arava)?

Hi ! Sorry to read that you've been having such a rough time over the past couple of months. I don't have personal experience with leflunomide, but I was able to find the following forum discussion where a couple of people have shared their experiences with it: https://psoriatic-arthritis.com/forums/arava Our lovely Leanne also shared her experiences with leflunomide in the following article: https://psoriatic-arthritis.com/living/experiences-taking-leflunomide

Hopefully some other community members will stop by and share with you. Please keep us posted on how you're doing if you can. Warmly, -Catherine, Community Moderator

Thank you!! Happy Easter !

First, I guess I would ask what it is specifically about Leflunomide that you are a"hard no". All DMARDs, traditional and biologic, have side effects. If you've had two painful months with no relief from the Inflectra, a TNF-a inhibitor, then it's probably time to move on. My experience with TNF inhibitors was with Enbrel and Humira, and neither was successful, though I had little to no side effects with either. Some DMARDs simply do not work for some of us, and it would appear (from reading others' experiences) that this might be dependent on disease severity and/or progression of disease. And the solution when one class of DMARD fails is often to move on to another class. I've done the Methotrexate and Sulfasalazine, Enbrel, Humira, Taltz, Cosentyx, and now Skyrizi. Despite the many numerous listed side effects of each of these, I've never hesitated to move on to whatever my rheumatologist recommends. And the most serious side effect I've experienced with any of these was: Methotrexate caused extreme nausea, and I kept getting frequent opportunistic infections; with Skyrizi, I had one mild case of ringworm that an OTC anti-fungal took care of, and a mild case of folliculitis. I have labs drawn every six months to check for anything abnormal, and nothing has ever been out of the ordinary in well over ten years. I used to research the hell out of anything and everything that any doctor wanted to prescribe, but I finally came to a few realizations. First, the amount of information on the internet is rather limited, as what is available is often the same info that has been constantly rehashed and rebranded, and then recirculated to other websites. And then there's the fact that people are far more likely to report, or post about, adverse events than they are when things work the way they are intended. I would add this last as an FYI to anyone reading: this disease will kill you, or at least make you wish it would, if you do not effectively manage it. Medication plays a major role in disease management, so don't be so quick to cast aside your rheuatologists' recommendations.

Hi @Cms72. I was on Leflunomide for a while. It did not do anything for me so I was taken off it. However, what we know is that what works for one doesn't work for another. I always take it from the point of not reading the possible side effects because I would probably say no to everything out there. My thought is that I never want to be as fully covered as I was in plaque psoriasis so I am willing to try anything until it proves to me that I can't take it. I am sure others in our great community will have plenty to say. Let us know what way you decide to go. Vickie W., Team Member