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Heba Iskandar, MD, MSc

Associate Professor, Director of IBD Clinical Research

Q: I was diagnosed with Crohn's 10 years ago and on the Remicade right now. But when I have a flare ups, Pentasa works great to calm down symptoms. I asked my doctor to prescribe Pentasa and he said that this medication is absolutely NO for Crohn's (only for Colitis) according some sort of recommendations. What is the harm in taking Pentasa with my Remicade for CD if it works to reduce my symptoms?

A: Pentasa and other 5ASAs have not been showed to have a benefit in achieving remission in Crohn’s studies/clinical trials. These studies were all pooled together and still there was no benefit. While pentasa does not suppress the immune system, and is overall safety profile is good, it has side effects like nausea/headache/rash/ and other rare side effects (such as pancreatitis, pericarditis, nephritis). It is a good practice to make sure that every medicine you take is truly needed. That said, I encourage a discussion with your doctor regarding the definition, duration, and severity of flares that you experience and based on the nature and frequency of the symptoms you can together decide if additional work-up is needed to define them better. This might help guide how you treat them. hide answer