Monday Pharmaceutical Mystery: September 3

A gentleman picks up his new 'heart' prescription, but he says the order was filled wrong. The medication is for colchicine, and he knows that is for gout. His wife takes this medication, and he believes the pharmacy screwed things up.

Mystery: Was there an error? Where did it occur? Did the doctor make a mistake? Did the patient's wife's medication accidentally get put under his name? This pharmacy does everything electronically and has a 100% accuracy rate for filling prescriptions with the new electronic system. An error would be very rare and out of character for the team.

Solution: Colchicine for Pericarditis is one of the many non-approved FDA uses. Some references say it's the first drug of choice for Recurrent Pericarditis.¹ It treats the pain and the swelling around the heart, although there is no uric acid involved.

Historically, colchicine has been successfully used to treat different types of pain and inflammation. It was originally an herbal substance that evolved into a drug. It works by interrupting the migration of neutrophils and monocytes to sites of inflammation.²

References

• Lange U, Schumann C, & Schmidt KL: Current aspects of colchicine therapy classical indications and new therapeutic uses. Eur J Med Res 2001; 6:150-160.
• Product Information: MITIGARE(TM) oral capsules, colchicine oral capsules. Hikma Americas, Inc. (per FDA), Memphis, TN, 2014.