Question
I am a member of an online chat forum and a conversation came up recently. Someone stated that when you take the weekly dose of metho, that it wears out of your system on 10hr sessions and is basicly gone within 24hrs. If this is so, why does the med last for the entire week? Is it that it makes your body alternate itself in some way that it takes the week to start itself changing back to normal? We thought it stayed in your system for that long, but recent conversations say otherwise. Also, besides the regular stomach upsets from taking the pill, how rare are the harsh effects like liver damage etc. Less than 1%? 5%?
Answer
The levels of MTX in the body decrease rapidly after the weekly dose, however the immunologic effect persists. Because it works on the immune system, it takes four to 6 weeks to have a clinical effect when starting it and it takes 4 to 6 weeks to “wear off” when stopping it. In clinical trials, elevated liver test occur in about 1-4% of patients, but clinically signficant, persistent liver damage is very rare. Almost all patients’ who have abnormal liver tests return to normal after stopping the drug.
