Gout flare up after forgetting Allopurinol

[Zyxol lo]

Hi,
Honestly I have poor adherence to my medication, sometimes I forget to take it for days on end. I recently forgot to take it for a short while, I then remembered to take it, 1 days later and I’m now having a very painful flare up. My question is, should I continue with the allopurinol now or stop taking it until the flare up passes. I have been taking allopurinol for about 8 years. (when I remember)
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

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Have you ever stopped uric acid treatment and had gout return?

[nobody]

Hi!
Definitely continue taking it. Don’t take twice as much to compensate, just the regular amount.
It’s fine to forget to take allopurinol once in a while because it’s slow-acting and stays in your system a while anyway. But you try not to neglect taking it several days in a row.
Allopurinol won’t make the pain go away now that it’s here but I assume you know what pills to take on top of allopurinol for the inflammation and pain.

[Zyxol lo]

Ok thanks, I was a bit confused as the advise is that you should not start allopurinol during a flare up, and as I had forgotten to take it for a few days (maybe a week) I wasn’t sure if that counted as ‘starting’ or just continuing.

[nobody]

It doesn’t count as starting.
But the traditional advice you’re talking has been shown not to be generally applicable to begin with and should therefore not be repeated without qualification, lest people be discouraged from starting allopurinol for no good reason.

[Author]

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