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Home > Community Treatment Reports > Rilutek (riluzole) Treatment Report
What is Rilutek?

Rilutek® is a brand name for riluzole, the first drug to be approved for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Rilutek does not cure ALS or improve symptoms, but may extend survival or the time to tracheostomy.

Reasons taken & Efficacy

Reasons and Efficacy
Reasons taken # of patients Major Moderate Slight None Can’t tell # of patients evaluated by
Slow my ALS progress 346 36
disease-related symptoms 12 1
Other 4 1
wanted to increase my life expecency 4 0
General health 3 0
Support another treatment 2 1

Mouse over the table for more information

Side Effects

Side effects as an overall problem

Severe
1 3%
Moderate
7 18%
Mild
5 13%
None
25 66%

Most commonly reported side effects

Fatigue
7 18%
nausea, stomach and intestinal pain
2 5%
cold feet and legs
2 5%
Ringing in the ears
1 3%
backache
1 3%
fast hart beating
1 3%
  • Mild
  • Moderate
  • Severe

Dosages

  daily 2 other daily 50 mg daily 100 mg daily 125 mg daily 150 mg daily 200 mg daily 300 mg daily
  19 Number of Patients: 19 1 Number of Patients: 1 42 Number of Patients: 42 298 Number of Patients: 298 1 Number of Patients: 1 1 Number of Patients: 1 2 Number of Patients: 2 1 Number of Patients: 1  

Stop Reasons

Why Patients Stopped Taking Rilutek (multiple reasons could be selected)
Reason # Patients Percentage of patients
Side effects too severe
30 47% Side effects too severe: 47%
Did not seem to work
19 30% Did not seem to work: 30%
Expense
7 11% Expense: 11%
Other
7 11% Other: 11%
Personal research
6 9% Personal research: 9%
Doctor's advice
6 9% Doctor's advice: 9%
Not indicated
6 9% Not indicated: 9%
Course of treatment ended
1 2% Course of treatment ended: 2%

See all 64 patients who’ve stopped taking Rilutek

Duration See details about how long patients take this treatment ▼

Currently Taking Rilutek

0-1 month 1-3 months 3-6 months 6 months-1year 1-2 years 2 years or more
3
8
31
52
38
74

Stopped Taking Rilutek

0-1 month 1-3 months 3-6 months 6 months-1year 1-2 years 2 years or more
7
12
6
14
8
15

Adherence, Burden & Cost See details from patient evaluations ▼

Adherence

Taking treatment as prescribed

Always
34 89%
Usually
4 11%
Sometimes
0 0%
Never
0 0%

Burden

Difficulty being on treatment

Very
3 8%
Somewhat
1 3%
A little
6 16%
Not at all
28 74%

Cost

Paid out of pocket

$200+
6 16%
$100-199
1 3%
$50-99
4 11%
$25-49
4 11%
< $25
13 34%

See more information, including instructions, precautions, side effects, and interactions.

Report created on November 21, 2009.