Whenever a drug treatment has lots of cautionary “dos” and “don’ts” in connection with other drugs dosages and it means that your doctor and pharmacist are focused not only on curing your illness or infection, but they are also making sure that you are perfectly safe when you take your drug medication. For your part you should make sure that you strictly follow what your doctor or pharmacist has prescribed for you.
Don’t use these drugs when you’re taking colchicine
It’s already medically known that when certain drugs are used with colchicine dangerous effects may be generated in the body. Listed below are examples of these drugs you should avoid using with colchicine:
- Antidepressants: which includes nefazodone: when you usehigh levels of this drug when taken with colchicine will
- Antibiotics: these include drugs such as clarithromycin or telithromycin. The danger here is that when you use these antibiotics with colchicine, you may end up with too much colchicine in your body. High levels of this drug medication in your body increases the risk of getting more side effects such as damaged muscles.
- Antifungal drugs: such as itraconazole or ketoconazole. When you use these drug medications with colchicine you will also raise the level of the drug medication in your body. This drug accumulation will inevitably result in more risk of getting side effects such as muscle damage.
- HIV drugs: these drugs include ritonavir or saquinavir, atazanavir, nelfinavir or indinavir. Again, using these drugs with colchicine can result in an increased risk of suffering from more side effects such as damaged muscles.
These interactions increases risk of side effects
- Heart drugs: these drugs include diltiazem or verapamil and when they interact with colchicine your increased chance of getting side effects can include the vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, stomach pain. It’s possible that in order to avoid them your doctor may think it appropriate to reduce your dose of colchicine.
- Digoxin: this is an antiarrhythmic drug and when it interacts with colchicine it may increase your susceptibility to serious damage to your muscles. To avoid getting the side effect, you doctor may find reducing your dosage of colchicine the best step to follow.
- Cholesterol drugs: some of these drugs include gemfibrozil, fibrates, atorvastatin, simvastatin, fluvastatin, pravastatin, or lovastatin.
Warnings about using colchicine
Several warnings are associated with the colchicine oral tablet such as:
Allergy
A severe allergic reaction may be caused by colchicine
- Breathing difficulty
- Swelling of your tongue or throat
If you experience these allergic symptoms, you should call your doctor or the local poison control center immediately. Don’t hesitate to call your area emergency number if your symptoms are severe or go to the nearest emergency room.
You are strongly advised never to take this drug medication again if you’ve encountered an allergic reaction to it. If you take it again, it may prove fatal or cause death.
Food
Certain food will interact with colchicine and we already know that interaction means that this drug medication can impair the proper functioning of the body in processing or absorbing the medication to properly do its work.
For instance, the flesh of the grapefruit or the grapefruit juice can render your body less capable of absorbing colchicine and hamper its proper functioning.
If so, you’ll be at greater risk of suffering more side effects. If you’re taking colchicine you should refrain from eating or drinking grapefruit juice.
Health
People suffering from kidney disease: your kidneys help to get rid of this drug medication from your body. However, if they can’t function properly, it’s more than likely that the medication will accumulate in your body increasing your risk of suffering from more side effects.
In order to avoid you getting more side effects, your doctor should lower your dose of colchicine so that you stand less chance of getting more side effects from the drug medication.
People who suffer from liver disease: colchicine is processed in your liver so if your liver is not working well, the level of the drug medication is bound to accumulate in your body increasing your risk of getting side effects.
The inability of your liver to process the drug medication can be lessen when you doctor decreases your dose of colchicine.
Others
Pregnant women: Colchicine is known as a category C drug for pregnancy. This status means two things:
- Research in animals has shown that negative effects to the fetus took place when the mother is given the drug.
- To date not enough research has been done in humans to ascertain how the drug may affect the fetus.
If you’re pregnant or planning to get pregnant, you should talk to your doctor about your situation. This drug medication should only be used if the resulting benefits are greater than the potential risk to the fetus.
For breastfeeding women: Colchicine can pass into the mother’s breast milk and may transmit side effects in the child being breastfed. Knowing this, you may want to decide either to stop breastfeeding your child or stop taking this drug medication.
For seniors: it’s quite possible that kidneys of older adults may not be working as efficiently as before. If that is the case, they may not be able to process the drug medication more quickly. This may result in more of the drug to stay in your body longer raising the risk of more side effects.
For children: There’s no medical evidence to show that treating gout in children has been effective. More research has to be undertaken to provide more information.
Bottom line
It’s of utmost important that you strictly follow the directions given to you by your doctor for taking drug medications such as colchicine. This has been deliberately done so that you can bring about your own cure and therefore reconfirm the efficacy of the medication as your doctor and pharmacist have already vouched for after strenuous research. Your cure will send news of success and pave the way for others to be similarly treated and cured as yourself.