Your health care provider will discuss the potential side effects with you. Steroids also work by decreasing inflammation. Steroids can be injected into the affected joint or given as pills. Colchicine can be used either in moderate doses to treat an acute or attack or sometimes in low doses for a long period of time to reduce the risk of recurrent attacks. Some patients may need to take medications that lower the uric acid in the blood.
Examples are allopurinol or probenecid.
These drugs are recommended for patients who have had multiple attacks of gout or kidney stones due to uric acid. The goal of lowering the blood uric acid is to slowly dissolve deposits of sodium urate in the joint. Sudden lowering of the uric acid level may cause an acute attack of gout. Side effects of medications Not all patients will develop side effects from gout medications. How often any side effect occurs varies from patient to patient.