Allopurinol

[Graham Paterson]

I have been taking Allopurinol (300mg daily) for over 4 months now. However, I have been having more severe gout attacks (in knee) recently. These are probably the worst attacks I have ever had, even with colchicine these seems to last longer than before (7-10 days) and are more severe. I have seriously considered coming off allopurinol altogether. Contacted my doctor and I’m currently awaiting a blood test (to check uric acid levels) before possibly moving onto 600mg of Allopurinol daily. Does anyone have any similar experience?

[nobody]

I can’t say I’ve had such a bad experience with gout treatment but my dosage was initially very aggressive and I had lowered by uric acid levels for many years through diet before moving on to drugs.
What I can say though is that allopurinol doesn’t work that fast, unless you start it as soon as you start getting attacks perhaps. If you’ve let gout fester for years before taking it, you’ll need patience to get rid of it. 4 months isn’t much when it comes to this disease.

Checking your uric acid and increasing your dose if it’s not low enough is the right thing to do, assuming of course your liver can take it and you’re not suffering from other dangerous side effects.
But maybe you could also do better when it comes to treating your symptoms. I don’t know how much colchicine you’ve taken or what other drugs you take so I can’t suggest anything specific but do consider and discuss with your doctor(s) a more aggressive and comprehensive approach to suppressing attacks (again, if your body can tolerate that).

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