Effective Treatments
This section does not mean that the best treatments for everyone are going to be recommended here. What I am outlining is what the people who filled in the survey listed as the effective (or not) treatments for them.
The two graphs above show the effectiveness of different treatments either for GBS or CIDP. I have charted this by percentage as this is more relevant as the number of people who were recommended IVIG was much higher than those for Plasma, so doing it against numbers skews the results.
What can be seen in that for GBS Plasma Exchange has the most major effects @65%, with IVIG second and if you include some as well as major, they have more or less the same percentage. One of the reasons that Plasma is not recommended is that it is much more difficult to administer/get. The highest non-effect is Steroids.
For CIDP, IVIG seems to be most effective. with Immuno-suppressants having the least effect. Plasma seems to have a more positive effect than Steroids, that seem to be the most balanced across the two sets, but slightly better for CIDP.
What can be seen in that for GBS Plasma Exchange has the most major effects @65%, with IVIG second and if you include some as well as major, they have more or less the same percentage. One of the reasons that Plasma is not recommended is that it is much more difficult to administer/get. The highest non-effect is Steroids.
For CIDP, IVIG seems to be most effective. with Immuno-suppressants having the least effect. Plasma seems to have a more positive effect than Steroids, that seem to be the most balanced across the two sets, but slightly better for CIDP.
Changing the focus to parts of the world and trying to see if treatments have different effectiveness depending on where you are (something I wouldn't expect to find). Due to the numbers IVIG is higher (and the percentages are against the effectiveness per treatment):
For GBS the UK has a higher effectiveness than the US or ROW, but also shows higher for having no effect! Also the US shows IVIG and Steroids having 40% of the no effects each?
For CIDP Steroids seem much more prevalent as a treatment and the most obvious statistic is that IVIG has the most & least effect in the US this time (and not the UK)?
For GBS the UK has a higher effectiveness than the US or ROW, but also shows higher for having no effect! Also the US shows IVIG and Steroids having 40% of the no effects each?
For CIDP Steroids seem much more prevalent as a treatment and the most obvious statistic is that IVIG has the most & least effect in the US this time (and not the UK)?
Changing the focus to gender, it seems that IVIG has a better effect on males with GBS, yet on CIDP they are more or less the same. Steroids certainly have less effect on women with GBS and again the effects are much more constant with CIDP.