Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP) Treatments

The mainstay of therapy for CIDP is corticosteroids. While steroids have many side effects they are very effective in treating CIDP. Patients will often see an improvement in a matter of weeks. In patients who do not respond completely to steroids or who have severe side effects to steroids there are a number of steroid sparing drugs. These include mycophenylate, azathioprine, cyclosporine, or cyclophosphamide.  In addition patients often have a very dramatic improvement to therapy with intravenous gammaglobulin. In severe cases patients may also be treated through a process called plasmaphresis.

CIDP can frequently follow a relapsing/remitting course. That is to say a patient may do very well for months or years and then for no clear reason experience a relapse. For this reason it is very important to follow closely with a neurologist who is familiar with the various treatments available for this disease.

Most patients (80%) make a total recovery but it may take weeks to years to see a maximal recovery. Some patients do not recover completely and have residual weakness, numbness and occasional pain. A small number are unable to resume their normal occupation. Death resulting from CIDP is highly unlikely.