Methotrexate Survey of NRAS Members

Taken from NRAS magazine, Autumn 2007

A big thank-you to all our Members who took the time and trouble to complete this survey which was undertaken in spring. The response to the survey was excellent with over 500 people participating, indicating the high level of interest in the topic of drug therapy.

The survey asked members of the charity to share their views and experiences of methotrexate (MTX), either taking it by mouth or by injection. Of the respondents, 76% were taking the drug by mouth and 24% by injection. The majority (52%) of respondents were aged between 56 and 65 years of age, only 5% were aged 26 or younger.

Some of the key highlights include:

Nausea, stomach upsets and headaches were the commonest side effects experienced taking the drug by mouth.

Only 50% knew that methotrexate could be administered parenterally (by sub-cutaneous injection) to help avoid side effects, however, 85% had never been offered MTX via injection as an alternative.

The majority (55%) of respondents were reviewed by the rheumatology team 6 monthly.

84% of those using parenteral MTX, felt it was easy to use with 13% having a problem getting the syringe out of the packaging.

91% of respondents had never phoned the NRAS Helpline. The main reason for not phoning being that they did not have any questions.

Twenty eight respondents did not know of the Helpline and of particular concern to us is that 25 respondents did not phone because they did not want to bother us. Please, please bother us, we are here to help!!

If you would like to receive more results from the survey, please contact NRAS.

This survey was made possible by an educational grant made by medac UK.