So I have, finally, reached a decision about The Medication Question. Copaxone has come out ahead. Why, you ask?

Well, it all came down to depression.

After my doctor diagnosed the depression last month and bumped up my anti-depressant dose I started to feel a bit better. I still feel a bit better, but I also still feel a bit down, a bit uninterested in the day-to-day happenings of my life and a general lack of interest in anything I used to find interesting. My energy level is low and I'm happier, most of the time, to spend the entire weekend in bed than I am in meeting up with others of the human race.

Now, I could go see my shrink and bump up my anti-depressants again, or I could try a different disease-modifying medication, one that does not typically cause or worsen depression in patients.

Since my depression seemed very stable and manageable on the doses I was at before I started the Avonex, it seems to make a certain amount of sense that the Avonex might be the cause of the increased malaise. Additionally, my ever-increasing aversion to giving myself the weekly intra-muscular injection (which involves jamming a big, long needle into my thigh) seems to indicate the need for a change of some kind.

Yes, the Copaxone has injection site reactions but, as I understand it, those are mitigable. Yeah, it sucks that I have to give myself an injection every day, but the fact that this is a subcutaneous injection and has an auto-injector makes that little pain in the rump a bit more bearable. The kicker is that the Copaxone doesn't - in most cases - cause depression or flu-like symptoms. So I'm going to give it a try. If nothing else, I will have more information about my body and how it reacts to these lovely chemicals.

The call has been made to mi médico so updates will surely be forthcoming once I've heard back.