Asking the question: Why is Cabergoline a prescribed drug medication?, does mean that this drug must be prescribed by a doctor, and can only be provided under prescription. You can never be too careful when you provide drug medication to the public. National health providers are required by law to make drug medications available under safe and secure guidelines so that they achieve their targets of curing people of conditions that affect them. Please read on.

The magic word “prescription”

Whenever you see the word “prescription” it means that a doctor has been responsible for prescribing the medication for addressing a certain type or types of diseases.

The doctor is also aware of the symptoms that may result from taking the drug medication and suggests certain precautionary measures to avoid being drastically affected by them. In general then, a prescribed medication is safe to take for curing the condition it’s supposed to cure.

Turning to drug medication Cabergoline

Health experts such as your doctor or pharmacist prescribe Cabergoline as a suitable treatment for hyperprolactinemia a long name that simply refers to a high amount of prolactin in a woman’s body.

Prolactin in a natural substance that assists women who breastfeed their young babies to produce more milk, a highly useful process that can also result in adverse symptoms such as sexual issues, infertility, and even loss of bone in women or men, not involved in breastfeeding.

This drug medication belongs to a family of medications known as dopamine receptor agonists that act to decrease the amount of prolactin in the body.

How should the medication be used?

You’ll be directed in your prescription label that comes with the medication, on how to use this drug medication. You should follow the instructions carefully if you want to achieve best results.

Cabergoline comes in tablet form which you should take orally. You are permitted to take the tablets with or without food two times per week. Don’t hesitate to ask your doctor or pharmacist to provide answers for anything you’re not sure about.

It’s very important that you take Cabergoline as you’ve been instructed by your doctor. Be careful not to take more than you’ve been instructed to and don’t take your medication more often than the number of times you’ve been allowed to take it.

It’s most probable that your doctor will start you off on a low dose of cabergoline and will gradually increase your dose and stop increasing it when you are taking your treatment not more often than once every 4 weeks.

Whatever you do, don’t stop taking your cabergoline medication until you talk to your doctor about stopping it.

If for some reason, you need to stop your medication, your doctor will most likely decrease your dose gradually rather than end it abruptly.

What are the other uses for Cabergoline?

Sometimes, cabergoline is used for treating Parkinson’s disease. This disease involves a disorder of the nervous system that causes restrictions to bodily movements, hinders your balance or affects your control of your muscles.

Special precautionary measures I should follow

These are some of the special precautions you should to take before taking cabergoline:

  • You should tell your doctor or pharmacist if you are allergic to cabergoline or
    • ergot medications such as bromocriptine (Parlodel); dihydroergotamine (D.H.E. 45,Migranal),
    • ergoloid mesylates (Hydergine),
    • ergotamine (in Cafergot, in Ergomar),
    • methylergonovine (Methergine),
    • methysergice (Sansert), and
    • pergolide (Permax0;

and any other medications, as well as any of the ingredients in cabergoline tablets. You should ask your pharmacist for a list of the ingredients found in cabergoline tablets.

  • You should also inform your doctor and pharmacist what other prescription and/or nonprescription medications, nutritional supplements, herbal products, and vitamins you are taking or you are planning to take. Make sure you mention antihistamines and ergot medications such as:
    • Dihydroergotamine (D.H.E. 45, Migranal),
    • Ergotamine (in Cafergot, in Ergomar), and
    • Methylergonovine (Methergine); haloperidol (Haldol); levodopa (in Parcopa, Sinemet, and Stalevo);

You should also mention medications for high blood pressure, mental illness, or nausea;

  • metoclopramide (Reglan); or thiothixene (Navene).

For the duration of your treatment course, your doctor may change you doses or monitor you carefully for any side effects that may emerge.

  • You also need to inform your doctor if you’ve ever taken street drugs, or whether you’ve ever had high pressure or any other condition that has caused a thickening or scarring or your lungs, abdomen and heart.

It’s also necessary to tell your doctor if you’ve ever had disease of your heart valve. In response, you doctor will need to examine you with tests to ascertain if your heart valves are healthy.

 It’s possible you doctor will instruct you not to take cabergoline if you display any signs of heart disease or any of the other conditions mentioned above.

  • Tell your doctor if you’ve ever had liver disease and you should also tell your doctor if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant. If you become pregnant while on cabergoline, call your doctor straight away.
  • If you are breastfeeding, or you are planning to breastfeed, tell your doctor. Cabergoline can either slow down or completely stop the production of breast milk.
  • It’s to your benefit to know that taking cabergoline can cause dizziness, fainting and lightheadedness when you get up too quickly from your lying posture. This usually happens when you start your treatment. To solve it, get up slowly and place your feet on the floor for a while before you stand up.
  • You need to know that people treated with cabergoline have developed gambling addiction or other strong urges or compulsive tendencies. They’ve even developed strong sexual urges. It’s not definite if these urges occurred as a result of taking cabergoline or from other reasons.

If you develop a gambling urge you can’t control, or other strong urges that you are unable to control, you should call your doctor and let him know your predicament.

You should also tell your family members so that they can call your doctor for you if you don’t realize that you are confronted with very serious attack of uncontrollable urges that have become a serious problem for you.

Bottom line

The effective control over the distribution of drug medications so as to render them secure, safe and effective are perhaps the main reasons why most of the drugs used for treating specific types of diseases are given under prescription labels. This is indeed the case for cabergoline and as expected, the drug has been safely provided and taken by patients especially women who’ve had problems with their breast feeding commitments.