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Anyone have experience with calcitonin for pain?
My husband has severe steroid-induced osteoporosis and is fracturing easily. He's having some back pain and his doctor recently prescribed calcitonin for two weeks, for the pain, and said not to take Forteo until after the two weeks on calcitonin.
Anyone have experience taking this drug for pain, and did it help? Was it helpful just for the short term or longer term?
I thought it was a bone building drug so I was confused why it was being given to control pain. We're very new to all of this and appreciate any feedback from those more experienced than we are.
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Calcitonin would be a very weak osteoporosis medication. It is one of the best pain relief drugs for vertebral fracture. It reduces inflammation, but is thought to restore serotonin receptors calming damaged nerves. You might want to take it at night; it can cause nausea. Said to be effective for up to 4 weeks. Your (clever) doctor is probably wanting to prescribe an anabolic medication
Calcitonin was once prescribed for osteoporosis, but proved to be a very weak antiresorptive.
The deftness of this prescribed treatment is in that the weak antiresorption would aid a later anabolic. And it will probably take a couple of weeks to get approval and set up delivery of the anabolic.
I'm so impressed that I'd like to know this doctor's name and have some confidence that they will recommend the best anabolics: Forteo or Tymlos.
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3 Reactions@gently
Thank you for sharing about the calcitonin. I had no idea initially that this drug would be helpful for pain and reducing inflammation. It's great that it has the ability to calm damaged nerves. I'll remind him to take it at night so there's less of a chance he'll have nausea.
His doctor has recommended 2 weeks. I will ask if she thinks we should go for the 4 weeks. She said if it doesn't work to help with the pain to stop it and start the Forteo. We're waiting to try the calcitonin before going to Forteo. We were fortunate to be approved by our insurance company so we already have the Forteo.
Our rheumatologist was initially helping us with his PMR and GCA and then with the osteoporosis he developed from taking too much prednisone for over a year (he's still on it for the GCA and will be for a while - we're working to taper him off of it.) It all takes time. We decided to try an endocrinologist after hearing people discussing their experiences and we are so glad we did! The doctor we got is one I've had for a thyroid issue some years ago and we love her! She has been the best addition to his medical team. The others hadn't even heard of Forteo or Evenity. She knew what I was talking about when I suggested we try Forteo since he has steroid-induced osteoporosis. She was all for it, but warned that it is very expensive and we might not have coverage. We have great insurance so we tried and they do. So we feel very fortunate.
This doctor's name is Dr. Christine Snyder. She's in the Portland, OR and SW WA area. She's a Kaiser Permanente doctor.
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1 ReactionIsabelle, amazingly well done. You've avoided all the pitfalls ended up with the best osteoporosis medication and a good endocrinologist.
Will he have bone markers to ascertain that Forteo is effectve for him.
With Forteo the P1NP should jump dramatically after the first two months. So you'd need a baseline.
You are his best luck.
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Thank you so much for that advice!! I will check to see if he’s had that test. I don’t remember seeing it on his lab results but I will check to be sure. If not I will ask for it to be ordered. I’d read about this and forgot all about it so thank you for the reminder.