Know what each treatment is actually for.
Gout treatment has two different jobs: settling inflammation during a flare and lowering uric acid over the long term. Mixing those jobs up causes a lot of confusion.
Understanding which job a medicine is doing makes the rest of gout treatment much easier to follow.
Reduce pain and inflammation.
Options used for an acute gout flare can include an NSAID, colchicine or a corticosteroid, depending on the person and clinical context.
Lower uric acid.
Urate-lowering therapy aims to keep serum urate below a treatment target over time and reduce future crystal burden and flares.
Start with the medicine or job you want to understand.
These are explainers, not prescribing instructions.
Allopurinol
Why it is used, why early flares can happen and what long-term treatment is trying to achieve.
Open guide →URATE LOWERINGFebuxostat
Another long-term route to lowering serum urate in appropriate patients.
Open guide →FLARESColchicine
Where colchicine fits, what it does not do and why dosing instructions matter.
Open guide →FLARESNSAIDs
Anti-inflammatory medicines used for some gout flares, with suitability depending on individual health factors.
Open guide →FLARESCorticosteroids
Another anti-inflammatory option used in particular situations.
Open guide →STRATEGYTreat to target
Why long-term treatment follows the uric-acid number rather than simply waiting for another flare.
Open strategy guide →Medicine choice, dose, interactions, kidney function and other health conditions matter. Speak with the clinician responsible for your treatment before starting, stopping or changing medication.
Quick answers, deeper when you need them.
Flares can temporarily increase when urate-lowering treatment begins as urate deposits start changing. That is different from the medicine “making gout worse” long term.
Read the allopurinol guide →No. Colchicine is used to control or prevent inflammation in particular circumstances; it is not itself a urate-lowering medicine.
Read the colchicine guide →Long-term urate-lowering treatment is generally adjusted against a serum urate target rather than judged only by whether you happened to flare this month.
Understand uric acid →