Patient/caregiver was educated on how to take tricor as follows:
- Take this medication as ordered by your physician. Do not change the dose on this medication without consulting your doctor.
- Take the medication dose with a glass of water at the same time, every day, to avoid forgetting the intake of medication.
- This medication can induce some nausea and vomiting, when taken on empty stomach. Taking the medication with some food or snack can help avoid these unpleasant gastrointestinal symptoms.
- Take the tablet/capsule as a whole. Do not cut, crush, or chew the tricor tablet/capsule, which can result in rapid absorption of the medication into the blood stream and compromise the therapeutic benefit of tricor intake. If you encounter difficulty swallowing the whole tablet/capsule, contact your physician for a change in plan of care to be considered.
- Maintain strict compliance with intake of the medication as ordered, with regards to dosage and frequency, to derive the benefit of the medication.
- Avoid drinking alcohol with tricor. Alcohol, by itself, carries the risk of elevating the bad cholesterol and triglycerides, thus compromising the therapeutic benefit of tricor intake. In addition, alcohol with tricor can increase the risk for hepatitis and damage to the liver function.
- When used as part of combination therapy for lowering the blood cholesterol, tricor could be taken at the same time with some lipid lowering medications and should be avoided taking at the same time with some other lipid lowering medications.
- Tricor could be taken at the same time with statins and zetia, but should be avoided from being taken at the same time with bile acid sequestrants or binders, such as, cholestyramine and colestipol. Bile acid binders not only bind the bile acids, but also bind with the tricor, if taken together. This binding inhibits the absorption of tricor in the intestines, thus compromising the therapeutic benefit of tricor intake. If both bile acid binders and tricor are prescribed for lowering blood cholesterol, space them out by atleast 4 hours, to avoid compromising the therapeutic benefit of tricor.
- Observe compliance with other measures for reducing blood cholesterol levels, to derive optimum benefit from the medication, such as, low fat diet and smoking cessation. Also, consider life-style changes, such as, physical exercise based on endurance, and weight loss, if obese.
- It takes about a month or two and may be even longer, before the cholesterol levels are lowered and the benefits of medication are noted. So, do not discontinue taking the medication without your physician’s consult, as you failed to see the desired result immediately after taking the medication.
- Your physician could change the dose of tricor, based on the lab results obtained for blood lipid levels. So, maintain compliance with follow-up physician appointments and lab draws ordered. Be accommodative to the plan of frequent dose changes, until you show an optimum response.
- Continue taking tricor as ordered, even if your lab results show the cholesterol and triglyceride levels under control. Abrupt discontinuation on tricor intake can elevate the lipid levels back again. Discontinuing the medication should only be on your physician’s recommendation.
