Dry mouth worse after increasing plaquenil?

[sickmama]

Is it possible that increasing plaquenil dosage can cause drier mouth? My mouth was already dry of course, but it's about 50% drier since increasing my plaquenil from 200 to 250 mg. It could be a coincidence. Anyone else experienced this?

[quietdynamics]

Try drinking at least 2 liters water/day. Your urine should be near colorless.

[Smitty75]

I had actually posted something similar a few days ago.  I had been somewhat stable between flares (still dry but manageable) and my doc recommended I start on plaquenil to try and keep it that way.  But after the first week my condition deteriorated quickly and now my mouth and eyes are terribly dry.  They had me stop taking plaquenil 9 days ago, but unfortunately I'm still having the issues.  In addition to nausea and a constant headache.

I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but the more plaquenil I took, the worse it got.  After 3 weeks at 400 mg, I couldn't take any more.  I may try to jump on prednisone for a couple weeks to see if I calm down whatever is happening.     

[Cassi307]

Sick mamma I don't think that the extra dry mouth is a side effect of Plaquenil. I think it's just part of your normal course of Sjogren's. Personally, some days my mouth is dryer than others. Have you discussed taking something like pilocarpine? I find I don't always have to take as many doses as it was prescribed. The moisture in my mouth seems to get super dry one day and be sort of okay the next.

I suggest asking your md about your concerns. Just a quick question- did your md prescribe your dose as 1 1/4 tablet? Or did you cut your tablet down so that you slowly adjust to the med?

[finallyadx]

Hi - so sorry to hear you are encountering additional dry mouth symptoms...I would tend to agree that is most likely NOT due to the plaquenil though.  I had just the opposite happen to me - I was taking 2 tabs plaquenil daily for a year and then this Jan my dr wanted me to lower it to 1 tab a day as we try to figure out what other meds (if any) I want to add and I only experienced an increase in dry mouth after I lowered the dose.  My dry mouth and eyes had actually improved being on the two tablets.

However, that being said, everyone reacts differently to medications so in  your case, who knows?  Maybe you react differently. 

Are you taking exocax or salagen or any of those for dry mouth?  If not, maybe you could ask to try one of them to see if this helps with the dry mouth symptoms.

Hoping you can find some relief and some answers.

Sending positive thoughts your way.

[SjoGirl]

My mouth and eye dryness increased considerably last fall after I had a very bad bout with a virus. Docs tell me it's just the SjS progressing.

I even asked my rheumy if it's worth continuing to take Plaquenil as she felt if it wasn't having a great effect by now she needed to add MTX. She said I need to stay on it as the effect it has, even if not as great as we'd like, it still helpful in managing the disease.

[sickmama]

Thank you for your responses. Salagen causes miserable symptoms for me. Do those subside with time?