Has anyone on this board ever heard of or tried Etanercept injections for pain?

[phils95cobra]

I have seen studies done with this drug Etanercept, also known as Enbril, which is used to treat arthritis. I have seen video on the internet of people getting very quick and somewhat long lasting relief from pain with these injections (sub-cutaneous). Anyone on here even tried it? Results? Anyone ever even heard of it?

 

[tetonteri66]

If you don't get any responses here, you might want to post this inquiry on the arthritis board or the pain management board.

I personally have no experience with the drug, but wanted to acknowledge your post in hopes others would see it.

 

[jennybyc]

Enbrel shots for the treatment of chronic back pain is in the research stage. I have talked to other patients who have wanted to get them but can't unless they go to where the clinical trials are being done. That is just the reality of the system.

Enbrel is very expensive and had lots of undesirable side effects(including cancer) so it has to be done very carefully. Your insurance will not pay for it if used "off label" and you are talking about $1000+per shot.

You can do the research and find a place close to you that is doing a clinical trail and see if you qualify. That is the only way right now.

I had major spine surgery 4 years ago and I also happen to have rheumatoid arthritis and 6 months after surgery, was put on Enbrel for my RA. Did absolutely nothing for my RA but did get my spine pain under control very quickly. I now take a different biologic drug for RA and it too helps. My low back pain is gone and it's not RA pain.

A totally different biologic drug was tried for OA of the knees and the trial had to be stopped as people destroyed their knees too fast with no more pain. Or so they think....the other possibility is that the drug destroyed the knee joints by speeding up the OA process. I suspect this is what they are trying to figure out with Enbrel...does it really treat just the pain or are there other factors involved like......will it speed up the destruction of the vertebrae/disks? A shot that helps pain is of little use of it kills the spine structures.

I know my current drug seems to be helping my spine pain dramatically(and has stopped my RA) but I have also seen a huge increase in the growth of OA bone spurs in my spine and even inside my fusion where none should be growing so I am interested in how these work too.

But for now, it is clinical trials only. Sorry.

Jenny