Is It Safe to Stop Taking Your Crohn’s Disease Medication?
Crohn's DiseaseTaking Control of Crohn’s

Is It Safe to Stop Taking Your Crohn’s Disease Medication?

Is It Safe to Stop Taking Your Crohn’s Disease Medication?
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Updated on September 16, 2026
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Not everyone wants to take medication regularly. For some people, the habit reminds them that they have a chronic illness; for others, it can be inconvenient.

If either reason sounds familiar, you might be tempted to cut back on, skip, or even stop taking your meds for Crohn’s disease, and this could be dangerous to your health.

Overall, anywhere from 53 to 75 percent of people who take medication for an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), such as Crohn’s, don’t stick to their treatment plan, according to one review of randomized controlled trials.

But no matter how well you’re feeling, it’s important to stay the course. Here, find out what can happen if you opt to forgo your treatment regimen.

What to Know if You Want to Stop Taking Your Crohn’s Medication

“Stopping medications for Crohn’s disease can result in complications,” including a flare, says Ellen Gutkin, DO, a gastroenterologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens in New York City.

Interrupted treatment can not only usher in abdominal pain, diarrhea, and bleeding, but also trigger complications like an intestinal blockage, bowel perforation, fistula, stricture formation, toxic megacolon, abscess, or colitis.

One small study of 207 people with Crohn’s found that 36 percent of people who stopped taking a biologic medication relapsed within two years.

And if you stop taking your medication, it may be somewhat less effective at staving off IBD symptoms if you start it up again. There’s also a chance you could develop antibodies to the medication, or have a hypersensitivity reaction to it when you restart it.

And once you start taking the medication again, you may not see results for a while. It can take some time to notice the benefits of just about any drug, but certain immunomodulators can be particularly slow to take effect again, says Dr. Gutkin. For example, several frequently prescribed immunomodulator medications for Crohn’s disease can take months to produce results.

If you relapse, you may also experience progressive bowel damage and need to have surgery before restarting medication, according to a research review.

When you stop your Crohn’s medication without your doctor’s approval, it may not only lead to increased flares and complications, but also increase your risk of colorectal cancer, according to research.

People with Crohn’s disease already have a somewhat higher risk of developing colon cancer than the general population. That risk increases in proportion to the amount of colon inflammation you have, how long you’ve had Crohn’s disease, and whether anyone in your family has developed colon cancer.

How to Stick to Your Crohn’s Disease Treatment Plan

It's crucial to take your Crohn’s disease medication as prescribed, but that doesn’t make it easy. Here are a few ways to stay on track.

If you need help adhering to your regimen, consider joining an in-person or online support group. Your fellow group members may be able to offer you helpful advice, including how to remember to take your medications every day and better cope with the ups and downs of chronic illness.

If you have questions about your treatment, call your doctor. They are a helpful resource — someone you can talk to about the medication’s side effects, benefits, and more. Generally, healthcare providers can give you more information and direct you to the latest research, and nurses can sometimes make in-home visits to help you get comfortable taking your medication.

If you’re having trouble affording your medication, seek financial resources. Treating IBD can be expensive: A study from researchers affiliated with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation found that people with IBD have more than three times as many overall healthcare costs and more than double the out-of-pocket costs of those without IBD. The first year of treatment can cost $26,000 or more, researchers found.

The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation has compiled a list of financial resources that can help you pay for your medications. Some pharmaceutical companies have programs to help subsidize the cost of the drugs, and there are organizations that provide assistance to people who need help paying for treatment.

EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. King K et al. What Do We Know about Medication Adherence Interventions in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis? A Scoping Review of Randomised Controlled Trial. Patient Preference and Adherence. December 12, 2023.
  2. Chiarello MM et al. Therapeutic Strategies in Crohn’s Disease in an Emergency Surgical Setting. World Journal of Gastroenterology. May 14, 2022.
  3. Louis E et al. Withdrawal of Infliximab or Concomitant Immunosuppressant Therapy in Patients With Crohn's Disease on Combination Therapy (SPARE): A Multicentre, Open-Label, randomised Controlled Trial. The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology. March 2023.
  4. Crispino F et al. Exit Strategies in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Looking Beyond Anti-Tumor Necrosis Factors. World Journal of Clinical Cases. April 26, 2023.
  5. Moran GW et al. British Society of Gastroenterology Guidelines on Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Adults: 2025. Gut. November 1, 2025.
  6. Medication Options. Crohn's & Colitis Foundation.
  7. Kobayashi T. Stopping Anti-TNF in CD Remitters: Cons. Inflammatory Intestinal Diseases. August 10, 2021.
  8. Xu F et al. Medication Adherence and Its Influencing Factors Among Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients in China. International Journal of General Medicine. April 18, 2022.
  9. Abu-Freha N et al. Colorectal Cancer Among Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients: Risk Factors and Prevalence Compared to the General Population. Frontiers in Medicine. August 6, 2023.
  10. Park KT et al. The Cost of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: An Initiative From the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. January 2020.
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Ira Daniel Breite, MD

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Ira Daniel Breite, MD, is a board-certified internist and gastroenterologist. He is an associate professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he also sees patien...

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