Folic acid and Methotrexate

Treatment and medication
1

I'm still confused about this. I take the prescribed 5mg once a week, not on sane day as mtx.

But the medical information (not forum) on this site says categorically not to take any vitamin preparations which contain folic acid. I take a Beroca multi vitamin every day except Monday (mtx day) and Friday (folic acid day) Along with other B vitamins and C it contains 360 micrograms of folic acid. Could this do any harm?

2

Hi Dinah, either ask your Consultant, or the hospital Pharmacist - he will be used to dispensing it.

3

http://www.drugs.com/drug_interactions.html

I always use this interactions checker to double check my prescribed drugs

4

Hi Dinah,

I've had a look at the Medicine leaflets for folic acid and methotrexate and see where your confusion is. I will ask our pharmacist to check the leaflets as they are contradictory.

Regards,

Alan

5

Thank you so much!

6

That's very useful Alan, I hadn't realised you had a Pharmacist available to you.

 

7

To clarify - this is the pharmacist in charge of the authors who write the medicine leaflets, not for consultations/advice . I'll get back with her reply when I hear.

8

Hello Dinah,  the 360 micrograms is a very tiny extra amount isn't it?  But just to confuse things more, I have always understood the norm was to take the folic acid tablet the day following the methotrexate.

9

Oh well, still better than I have!!

10

I have been on MTX since 2003 and take 20mgs.

I was told to take 5 mgs of Folic acid every day except MTX day.

On a repeat presciption a couple of years back it said take twice a week.

I ask the phamacist about this the next day and he checked it. He said carry on as i had been taking every day exce0pt MTX day as my consultant had said from the start. He also said it was probably the main reason that i have had NO side effects from the MTX in 13 years.

11

Regarding the Folic Acid and the MTX, the best thing to do, is to follow the instructions of your prescriber, a Consultant in the UK,  I don't know about other countries.

My Consultant asked me to take my MTX and Folic acid together after I had an adverse reaction to the MTX and it worked like this for 18 months.

 

12

My consultant seems to work on an alliteration basis! Monday Methotrexate, Friday Folic Acid. Easy to remember apparently....

13

Folic acid is extremely important to take with methotrexate. That is why you have been given this by your doctor. Your health will decline very fast and your immune system even further compromised for further loss of health and other diseases without it. The information you are reading is not correct and i dont know what the reason or agenda would be to have such an important faucet of your disease management misrepresented on this web page. You will find consistant and correct folic acid supplement with methotrexate information consistantly in the world wide web. Where are you finding this misleading information?

14

It's on the patient.info website but the moderator is very helpfully investigating the information given. I'm not questioning the dose prescribed by my doctor - just whether any extra supplementation could have ill effects

15

The supplementations are what have saved my life and prevented my RA health from taking devistating turns..no more fibromyalga..no adrenal failure..no other connected diseases that attach themselves to RA from not feeding my body where starvation and disease lies. Nutrition and supplements are an absolute must so that you do not deterioriate further, giving disease honor. Any ridiculous information that leads you to not taking care of yourself proactively, has another goal.

16

I take MTX 2.5mg x 5 on Thursday and a "Prescription" only folic acid 1mg every day as prescribed by my doctor. No folic acid "Vitamin" preparations 

17

This is one I find confusing too. I've been since by two different consultants since starting Mxt n both have prescribed folic acid differently, one said to take folic acid everyday with hydroxychloroquine, the other said to take folic acid once a week two days before or after taking Mxt. I went for the later though only because I'll do anything to reduce the number of tablets I pump into myself.

I'm curious to hear a pharmacist' opinion n will ask the next time I pick up my next set of injections

18

Once a week if 5 mg tablets of folic acid..everyday if it is a 1 mg tablet...not to be taken on the same day as methotrexate.

19

My prescription says 5mg everyday, not 1mg everyday

20

I don't take supplements and I'm fine just being on MXT. Supplements need not come from tablets as you can get them from food if your diet is right.