For those with Crohn's Disease, 6-Mercaptopurine is the the prescription drug often used as maintenance therapy. However, toxicities like myelosuppression limit its
clinical benefit.
To evaluate the efficacy of the Elemental Diet versus
6-mercaptopurine as maintenance therapy in Crohn's disease--the first comparative study to pit nutritional therapy against 6-Mercaptopurine in a controlled setting.
95 patients with Crohn's disease were randomly assigned to: 6-mercaptopurine; an elemental diet;
or none (control). Patients were observed for 2 years
and the rate of relapse (Crohn's disease activity index ≥200) was monitored.
At 24 months, the fractions of patients who had maintained
remission were 60%, 46.9% and 27.2% for 6-mercaptopurine, elemental diet, and the
control groups, respectively. Results showed better efficacy for
6-mercaptopurine and elemental diet versus
control, while no significant difference was found between 6-mercaptopurine and elemental diet groups. Further, in the 6-mercaptopurine group, 2 patients experienced liver
injury and one developed alopecia (hair loss).
In the end, this 24-month study showed that nutritional intervention, in the form of an elemental diet, was as effective as
6-mercaptopurine, and should be considered useful for long-term maintenance therapy in
Crohn's disease.
Source: Nutritional therapy versus 6-mercaptopurine as maintenance therapy in patients with Crohn's disease
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