For women, common risk factors for developing the disease include age, weight, and number of children. Among obese women between 20 and 30 years of age, the risk is six times greater than that for women of normal weight. By age 60, almost one-third of obese women can expect to develop gallbladder disease. Drug Treatment Drug treatment to dissolve gallstones began about 20 years ago, when researchers found that a deficiency of bile salts enabled cholesterol to crystallize out of solution and form stones. Today, drugs are typically given for small stones or if a person cannot tolerate surgery.
Ursodeoxycholic acid is less likely to be toxic to the liver, but is more expensive.
But the drugs have major drawbacks. A common side effect of these drugs is diarrhea. The drugs work slowly and must be taken daily for a long time and, even then, are not always effective. About 12 percent of patients improve after six months, and up to 50 percent show improvement by a year. It works fast on cholesterol stones, dissolving them in 24 to 48 hours, but administering the drug is an invasive procedure.