Overall, about one in five people who take medication for an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), such as Crohn’s, don’t stick to their treatment plan over the long term, according to a study published in March 2020 in the journal Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. But no matter how well you’re feeling, it’s important to stay the course. “Stopping medications for Crohn’s disease can result in complications,” says Ellen Gutkin, DO, a gastroenterologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens in New York City. For starters, she says, it might trigger a flare, which can usher in abdominal pain, diarrhea, and bleeding. Other ramifications include intestinal blockage, bowel perforation, fistula or stricture formation, toxic megacolon, secondary infectious colitis, and abscess. What’s more, she says, complications of Crohn’s disease can spread beyond the intestines and affect your eyes, joints, and skin.
What to Know if You Want to Stop Taking Your Crohn’s Medication
If you stop taking your medication now, you may not be able to take it again in the future. That’s because some treatments for Crohn’s disease can become less effective at staving off IBD symptoms if they’re not used continuously. “Biologic medications for Crohn’s disease are made from certain proteins and antibodies that halt the inflammatory cascade,” Dr. Gutkin says, “so to stop taking these drugs means that you’re taking a chance on allowing your body to build a reaction to the antibody, which would limit its ability to properly modulate your immune system and control the inflammation of Crohn’s disease.” Even if you don’t become resistant to the effects of the medication, you may not see results for a while once you start taking it again. While it can take some time to notice the benefits of just about any drug, certain immunomodulators can be particularly slow to take effect again, says Gutkin. Several of the most frequently prescribed immunomodulator medications for Crohn’s disease can take three to six months to start showing results. Finally, stopping your Crohn’s medication without your doctor’s approval may not only lead to increased flares and complications, but also increase your risk of colorectal cancer, according to a report published in October 2017 in the journal Intestinal Research. People with Crohn’s disease already have a somewhat higher risk of developing colon cancer than the general population, and that risk increases in proportion to the amount of digestive tract inflammation they have, the longer they’ve had Crohn’s disease, and whether anyone in their family has developed colon cancer.
How to Stick to Your Crohn’s Disease Treatment Plan
Taking your Crohn’s disease medication as prescribed is critical, but that doesn’t make it easy. Here are a few ways to stay on track.
If you need help adhering to your regimen, consider joining an in-person or online support group. Your fellow group members may be able to offer you helpful advice, including how to remember to take your medications every day and how to stay positive if you have a chronic disease.If you have questions about your treatment, call your doctor. They are a helpful resource — someone you can talk to about the medication’s side effects, benefits, and more. Generally, healthcare providers can give you more information and direct you to the latest research, and nurses can sometimes make in-home visits to help you get comfortable with taking your medication.If you’re having trouble affording your medication, seek financial resources. Treating IBD can be expensive: A study published in May 2019 in the journal Inflammatory Bowel Diseases found that people with IBD pay three times as much in healthcare costs as those without IBD.
The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation has compiled a list of financial resources that can help you pay for the medications. Some pharmaceutical companies have programs to help subsidize the cost of the drugs, while some organizations provide assistance to people who need help paying for their treatment.
