Primary and secondary dryness?

[GgcJap]

Hi all,

I read yesterday that Primary Sj?gren's dryness is much worse than secondary.
Is there any truth to this?

I also get the feeling that most remission of Sj?gren's is in secondary patients? Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Just a few thoughts I've been having lately.

Thx in advance

GgcJap

[cccourt1942]

GJC: My understanding follows:
Primary is when  you are dxed as Sjogren's alone. 
Secondary is when you have another autoimmune disease initially (such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, etc)

With primary (alone--redundant noted here) your dryness is "worse" as that isn't a symptom of RA, Lupus, etc.

When you are diagnosed with sjs after RA, lupus, etc, then you have the symptoms associated with SjS:  oral and eye dryness. 

Hope this helps.
c3

[warmwaters]

This is just based on the comments I've read hear over the years - Primary versus secondary doesn't matter in terms of the severity of the symptoms.

The reason primary may seem worse is that the disease isn't identified until you've got serious dry mouth or eyes, or fatigue, or other symptoms, and then tests are done, and the problem is identified as Sjogren's. While with secondary, maybe you're already diagnosed with RA, and then they add on a diagnosis.

In other words, you might have Sjogren's primary for a while, but only when the symptoms are severe enough to interfere with your life do people tend to try to figure out.

[GgcJap]

Thx cccourt and warmwaters,
     A lot of useful information and it makes sense I guess that if the dryness is what alerts you to the problem it's going to be worse.

GgcJap