Treating the Pain vs. the Cause

When you're in the middle of a gout attack, stopping the pain is probably the only treatment plan you want to hear about. And, once your medication kicks in, and your pain begins to fade, you may be left feeling like the treatment worked. After all, you're not in pain anymore, right?

Actually, that's only half the story. There are 2 important steps to treating gout. The first step is relieving the pain of an attack as it occurs. The second step is long-term treatment of the root cause of gout, high uric acid levels in the blood. Both steps are important in your gout management plan.

Here's how the 2 steps work together for long-term management of gout:

Step 1: Treating the Symptoms

The first step to gout treatment is immediate pain relief for the attack. Medications for treating the pain of a gout attack include common pain relievers and anti-inflammatories, such as:

• NSAIDs (Examples: indomethacin and naproxen)
• Colchicine
• Steroids (Example: prednisone)

Key considerations:

• Pain medication can help relieve your immediate pain, reduce swelling, and may shorten the duration of the attack.
• Some medications work best when they're taken early…so you'll need to keep a supply on hand.
• You're treating a painful symptom of gout, but not the root cause.

Step 2: The Root Cause: Treating high uric acid

Relieving gout pain is important, but to help manage the condition over time, you'll need treatment that lowers high uric acid, the root cause of gout. ULORIC helps adults with gout reduce the body's production of uric acid by stopping the body from turning purines into uric acid. As a result, uric acid stays low in most patients over time. Research shows that keeping your uric acid level low can help control your gout symptoms.

Key considerations:

• For long-term management of gout, your uric acid level should be less than 6 mg/dL.
• ULORIC was shown to be effective in lowering uric acid to healthy levels (less than 6 mg/dL).

Talk to your healthcare professional about how medicines to help manage symptoms and ULORIC fit into your gout treatment plan. Learn more about ULORIC.