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Steroid drug offers hope to MS patients
01 May 2009
Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who use a steroid drug in addition to an MS drug may reduce the disease's symptoms more than if they use the MS drug in isolation, a new study has suggested.
Researchers from the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Research Center at Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark, found that MS patients who received methylprednisolone in monthly 'pulses', or three doses over three days, in addition to MS drug interferon beta-1a, were less likely to experience relapses.
Study author Mads Ravnborg said the results suggest that the drugs "may have a synergy when taken together".
"This is a promising finding, as the benefit from interferon is only moderate and not everyone responds fully to the treatment, so anything we can do to boost those results is positive," he explained.
During the study, participants who received both drugs had 38 per cent fewer relapses than patients who were only receiving the interferon drug, while they also showed improvements on MS disability tests.
MS is five times more prevalent in temperate climates than in tropical climates.
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