Talk:Biological therapy for inflammatory bowel disease

Western Hemisphere?

The "western hemisphere" excludes Europe but includes South America. I thought UC rates were similar in Europe and North America. Much of South America is in the "developing world".M dorothy 18:20, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Any patients out there?

I have suffered with IBS for over 30 years. I am one of six siblings, who have all had symptoms. One had a colostomy at age 7 and died in her 40's. My oldest brother had his colostomy in his 50's and is still working at age 65. I have been treated with salicilates and prednisone, both of which have bad side effects. I also have been treated with azathioprine (Immuran). Since this is supposed to treat the autoimmune disease, is this a biological?User: W8IMP 0251 04 Sept (UTC)

Azathioprine is considered to be an immunosuppressant but wouldn't classify as a biological. Sounds like you've had a rough go with illness, sorry about that -- Samir धर्म 02:41, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

TNF

"Tumor necrosis factor" has become something of a misnomer that is actually misleading. I therefore prefer to use "TNF".

Few readers understand "tumor necrosis factor", and those that do think it must have something to do with killing tumors, so why do you want to shut it down. Just use "TNF" and avoid this confusion.M dorothy 04:13, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Cause of IBD

Your references to the cause of IBD suggest that there is a single cause. That has not been demonstrated, and is indeed unlikely. M dorothy 04:35, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

You are also saying that IBD is of unknown causation. That's not generally true, as the term is defined in Wikipedia. Several forms, including infective colitis, have a clear cause.

I'm not sure that it is constructive to try to deal with Crohn's disease and UC in the same article. And, if you are talking about IBD, you need to cover all forms. M dorothy 05:02, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

IBD = CD + UC + indeterminate colitis. Infectious colitis is a completely different disease caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites or protozoans. IBD has no known cause.

The primary biological, infliximab, is now being used to treat both CD and UC; hence the constructiveness of a single article. Adalimumab is being investigated for UC in a large RCT in North America. IBD has no known cause but several associations have been noted to imply causality. -- Samir धर्म 10:28, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps you should edit the article on IBD to conform with your definitions.M dorothy 02:06, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Infliximab

Infliximab has a separate page. Would anyone object to turning the two current sections on it into a summary and then referencing readers to that separate page? Statesman 88 00:42, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Helminthic Therapy not relevant to article

I can understand why the error was made, but in this case "biologic" doesn't mean "anything that's biological", it refers to a specific type of compound, which Helminthic Therapy is most decidedly not. This section should be moved to another page. Chris Martin (talk) 16:28, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Agreed - 'biologic therapy' refers specifically to antibody-derived medications such as the anti-TNF's, and more recent additions such as vedolizumab or ustekinumab. Helminthic therapy already has its own page - it is irrelevant and incorrect to include it in this section. I'm going to delete it. (Actually already did, but someone undid my edit)