Managing Your Medications
By Bruce
Campbell
Medications
can play a useful role in managing CFS or fibromyalgia. Even though they won’t
cure either condition, they can help you to control symptoms and
reduce suffering. While drugs often produce benefits, they can also
create problems. This article discusses five common problems with
medications what to do about them.
Problems
with Medications
1) No Effect
Sometimes
you start taking a medication, can’t see any change in your symptoms
and conclude it is not working. You may be right! There is no drug that
is consistently effective for treating CFS and FM, so finding one that
helps you is likely to be a process of trail and error. You may have to
try several before finding one that works.
On
the other hand, you may need to give the drug more time. Some drugs take
up to several weeks to produce an effect. It’s also possible that a
drug could be helpful at a higher dosage level. Because most people with
CFS and FM are very sensitive to medications, your doctor is likely to
start you on a low dosage, to see if it’s effective and also whether
it produces side effects. If you can tolerate the drug at an initial
level but don’t experience benefits, you may benefit from a higher
dosage.
2) Side Effects
The
most common negative result of taking a medication, side effects are
unwanted consequences of using a drug. They include fatigue, mental
confusion, memory problems, sleepiness, sleeplessness, nausea, diarrhea,
constipation and dizziness.
If
you experience side effects with a medication, discuss them with your
doctor. Solutions include accepting the side effects (you decide the
benefits of the drug outweigh the side effects), adjusting how you take
the medication (for example, with food rather than on an empty stomach),
changing dosage level or switching to a different medication (there is
often more than one drug used to treat a condition or symptom).
Several
of the side effects mentioned above are also symptoms of CFS and FM. In
developing your symptom management plan, consider the possibility that
some of your fatigue, mental confusion, sleep problems or digestive
difficulties may be caused by a medication.
3) Allergic Reactions and Drug Interactions
Drugs
can trigger allergic reactions from the body, such as a rash, hives,
swelling, wheezing or difficult breathing. If this occurs, stop taking
the medication and contact your doctor.
If
you take more than one medication, you may experience problems caused by
how the drugs interact with one another. Ways to combat this problem
include switching to a new drug, reducing the number of medications you
take, and telling your doctor about all your drugs, vitamins and
supplements, so that possible interactions can be taken into account.
4) Remembering to Take Your Medications
If
you have problems remembering to take your medications, consider using a
seven-day pillbox or pill organizer, which has a compartment for each
day of the week. If you have morning and evening pills, you can use two
pillboxes. Fill the boxes on the same day once a week. This practice
reduces the chances you will take a double dose of your medications. If
it’s Wednesday morning and there are pills in the Wednesday slot, you
take them. If the compartment is empty, it means you have already taken
them.
A
second strategy is to incorporate reminders into your life. For example,
you might put your pills in the bathroom, where you’ll see them when
you get up in the morning and as you’re preparing for bed at night. Or
you could use a timer or alarm on your watch to tell you it’s time to
take a medication.
5) Drug Costs
A
final problem with taking medications is cost. You may be able to lower
your drug costs by:
Other
Ideas for Medication Management
Use Lifestyle Change to Control Symptoms
The
symptoms of CFS and FM have many causes, including overexertion,
deconditioning, stress, worry and depression. These other causes can be
addressed by changing how you lead your life. For example, pacing is
widely recommended as an antidote to overexertion and thereby an
effective treatment for fatigue, pain, sleep problems and cognitive
difficulties (brain fog). Pacing may include a variety of strategies,
for example adjusting your activity level, having short activity periods
and taking rest breaks. Exercise can reduce fatigue and pain. Stress
reduction affects muscle tension and worry.
Changing
the way you live has advantages over medications. Lifestyle change has
no side effects, it’s cheap, and it is highly likely to help.
Well-known CFS/FM physician Dr. Charles Lapp has written that CFS and FM
are “best managed with adaptation and lifestyle changes.” Comparing
this approach to other options, he adds, “There is no drug, no potion,
no supplement, herb or diet that even competes with lifestyle change for
the treatment of CFS or FM.”
Partner with Your Doctor
Finding
medications that work for you with a tolerable level of side effects is
an effort. It is usually a process of trail and error, one you may have
to go through more than once if a medication that helps at one point
later becomes ineffective or produces serious side effects.
Having
a good working relationship with your doctor helps. Your
responsibilities include telling the doctor about other medications you
are taking, reporting on your drug allergies and mentioning previous
medications you have tried to treat your condition and reporting back to
your doctor on your experience with a medication.
If
you are offered a medication, ask your doctor:
