Whether you are intending to use a new arthritis medication or any arthritis pain medication that has been around for some time, it is important that you use them properly. Just as with any other type of medicine you need to be sensible and responsible when you are taking your arthritis pain medication and you need to use it as prescribed by your doctor.

One of the biggest mistakes that people make is thinking that just by taking more of their arthritis pain medication they will get better results and feel better overall. Although it may seem this way, this is actually not true at all, and in fact if you do not take your arthritis pain medication as recommended, you will be at potential danger of harming yourself if not even killing yourself.

The Selection

There are actually quite a few different types of medication that are available these days for arthritis. This is obviously a good thing, but at the same time can make it very difficult for doctors and patients alike to find the right medication for a particular circumstance.

Before you start on any arthritis medicine, it is crucial that you take the time to understand about it, what it offers, and whether there are any side effects associated with it.

Since individual response to drugs can vary and because potential side effects and adverse reactions are also a factor, finding the most effective combination of arthritis drugs can definitely be a more difficult process than one may imagine.

There are the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs which are the most commonly prescribed. This is the first arthritis pain medication that your doctor will probably recommend you try. There are actually three different types of these medications that are available: salicylates, the traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and COX-2 selective inhibitors.

Make sure that you work together with your doctor in order to find the right treatment for you. Also realize that the medication you start may not work right away, but you need to give it a chance. In fact, most prescription medications for arthritis and any other disease will not show their true results until about four to six weeks after you start taking them, and so you really need to give your body a chance to react to them and adjust.

You can deal with your arthritis effectively, as long as you use the right medication and take your health seriously.