Choosing a Multiple Sclerosis Treatment
Choosing the right multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment is an important step toward taking control of your multiple sclerosis. When choosing a multiple sclerosis treatment, you should look at how effective the treatment is for you, possible side effects, and how easily the treatment fits into your lifestyle.
Before choosing a multiple sclerosis treatment, you and your healthcare provider should consider the following questions:
- What multiple sclerosis treatment can help me slow physical disability?
- What treatment can help me reduce relapses?
- Can I do something to minimize brain lesions?
- What side effects and precautions should I be aware of?
- How can my doctor and I manage common side effects?
- What if I’m concerned about neutralizing antibodies?
- Is there a multiple sclerosis treatment that requires fewer injections than others?
- Where can I find more resources to help me get started?
When comparing multiple sclerosis treatments, consider their:
Effectiveness
To evaluate effectiveness, look at how well the multiple sclerosis treatment has been shown to slow the progression of physical disability, decrease the number of relapses, and minimize size and number of brain lesions. Many experts believe that the most important goal “of any disease-modifying treatment of MS is to prevent or postpone long-term disability.”
Safety
Before you start any multiple sclerosis treatment, it's important to speak with your healthcare provider about the possible benefits and side effects.
Convenience
Convenience is a compelling reason to choose a multiple sclerosis treatment because it helps you stick with it, assuring you the full benefits of the medication. In the case of AVONEX, you not only get convenience, you get clinically proven effectiveness. It’s the most prescribed multiple sclerosis treatment in the world*.
When a multiple sclerosis treatment is convenient, it also makes life easier, which helps you live more on your own terms. Consider the feeling of freedom, knowing you only have to inject once a week. And self-injection means you decide when and where to do it. Convenience means you have more control over how you live your life with MS.
More MS medication isn’t always better and may cause unwanted side effects. A clinical trial compared two doses of AVONEX and showed that the effectiveness of a once-weekly intramuscular injection of 30 mcg is similar to that on a 60 mcg does. The higher dosage didn’t significantly improve effectiveness, but it was associated with more side effects.