If a person suffers from high blood pressure, angina pectoris, then he should pay attention to the drug “Felodipine”. Instructions for use This medication, however, states that it must be drunk strictly according to a doctor’s prescription. And if the doctor gave his approval, then you can safely run to the pharmacy for this remedy.
Today we learn how to take Felodipine tablets correctly, in what quantity, so that an overdose does not turn out. And also determine whether there are analogues of this medication. And if so, what are they called.
Dosage and features of the drug
The drug "Felodipine" is used to treat blood pressure (hypertension), as well as angina pectoris. The medication should be taken early in the morning: before meals or after a light breakfast. So the drug “Felodipine” is absorbed faster and better. Instructions for use of this medication say that tablets can not be cracked, broken, crumble.
The dosage of the drug is determined by a specialist based on what the patient’s diagnosis is. So, with arterial hypertension, a medicine is prescribed in such an amount:
- Therapy begins with 5 mg once a day.
- If the doctor allowed, then you can increase the amount to 10 mg.
- In elderly patients or people who have disorders associated with liver function, the initial amount of the drug should be 2.5 mg (1 time per day).
With stable angina, the dosage of the drug is as follows:
- Treatment begins with 5 mg once a day.
- If necessary, you can increase the number of pills to 10 mg. And the maximum amount of medicine that a patient can take per day is 20 mg.
The drug is excreted in urine (70%), and the rest with feces.
Driving a car for the treatment period
Patients who have weakness, dizziness during drug therapy should definitely refuse to drive any vehicle. In addition, you should also abandon the work where you need a significant concentration of attention.
Release form
The medicine “Felodipine” is a long-acting tablets coated with a special coating of 2.5 mg, 5 mg and 10 mg. The packaging of the drug is as follows: 10, 15 or 30 pills in blisters. And such blocks in a box can be 1, 2, 3 or 6. These tablets are light yellow or bright yellow, they are round and biconvex.
special instructions
Pills "Felodipine", the instructions for use of which have already been described above, can in rare cases cause characteristic arterial hypotension, leading to the appearance of myocardial ischemia in some patients. To date, there is no evidence of the advisability of using the drug as a secondary prevention of heart attack.
"Felodipine" is quite effective and well tolerated by patients, regardless of who is being treated: a man or woman, an elderly person or a middle-aged person, as well as patients with concomitant ailments, such as bronchial asthma, diabetes, gout, Raynaud's syndrome, and even after a lung transplant.
Side effects
All drugs that have antihypertensive, antianginal effects have a number of negative manifestations, and the drug “Felodipine” was no exception.
Instructions for use of this tool describe the following adverse effects during or after treatment with this medicine, as well as its analogues:
- Cardiovascular system: ankle swelling, fainting (rarely), flushing of blood to the skin of the face.
- From the stomach: nausea, vomiting.
- Nervous system: unbearable pain in the head, dizziness.
- Allergic manifestations: various rashes, itching, urticaria.
- Other: fatigue, impotence, gingival hyperplasia, mucous membrane of the tongue, gingivitis, fever - such symptoms are rare.
Contraindications
Felodipine tablets should not be taken by people with the following features and health problems:
- With severe arterial hypotension.
- With increased sensitivity to felodipine and excipients.
- With constant heart failure.
- In acute myocardial infarction.
- With unstable angina.
It should not be taken by pregnant women during lactation, as well as children under 18 years of age, since efficacy and safety in this case have not been established.
Similar medicines
It is no secret that many drugs have analogues that are being developed so that, firstly, consumers have the right to choose (purchase expensive medicine or cheaper), and secondly, manufacturers increase their income. In this case, the drug “Felodipine” was not an exception, the analogues of which differ in price, but the active substance in them is the same - felodipine.
So, similar remedies for the drug described in this article are called as follows: Plendil and Felodip tablets. The latter is a complete analogue of the drug "Felodipine", even their cost is the same. But another medicine - Plendil pills - has a slightly different composition, although with the same active substance. But the price of these pills is slightly higher than the medicine described in this article.
The drug "Plendil": instructions for use
These pills must be taken orally in the morning, before or after a person had breakfast (it does not matter). The tablets must be swallowed completely with water. With arterial hypertension, you need to take 5 mg of the drug in 24 hours (if necessary, the dose can be adjusted with an interval of at least 2 weeks). For elderly patients, the amount of medication can be reduced to 2.5 mg per day. With angina pectoris - 5 mg per day, if necessary - 10 mg. The maximum amount of medication should not be more than 20 mg per day.
We should not forget that the drug "Plendil", the instructions for use of which must be included in the package, should be prescribed strictly by the doctor. Another change in the treatment regimen, the amount of medication used should also be agreed with a specialist.
In what cases is prescribed?
The drug "Plendil", which doctors recommend as an alternative to another drug - "Felodipine" tablets, is prescribed for the same health problems, namely:
- arterial hypertension;
- angina pectoris;
- Raynaud's disease.
The medicine "Felodip"
This tool is a complete copy of the already known drug “Felodipine”. Instructions for use are the same, the purpose and features of the application are similar to the main drug. Therefore, if the doctor prescribed Felodipine tablets for treatment, but they were not in the pharmacy, then you can safely purchase another drug - Pills Felodipine.
The drug "Amlodipine"
If this or that medicine has analogues or pills similar in action, but they have a different composition, then this is only for the benefit of people. After all, if there is no main drug, then the doctor can prescribe another one without problems, and a person should not run around pharmacies and look for exactly that remedy, because such medicines will be on the shelves.
One of such similar action drugs are Amlodipine tablets. They are also prescribed by doctors to treat patients who have arterial hypertension, angina pectoris, and also coronary heart disease. This medication can be used in relation to patients who have chronic heart failure, and even bronchial asthma.
Differences between the drugs "Felodipine" and "Amplodipine"
First, we call the similarities: both drugs are intended for the treatment of hypertension, angina pectoris. The differences in these medicines are as follows:
- The drug "Felodipine" - in comparison with "Amlodipine", a representative of calcium antagonists, acts for 2.5-4 hours, and in the second medicine, the effect develops from 4 to 5 hours.
- The absorption of the drug “Felodipine” is faster than the second sample. So, the absorption of the drug “Amlodipine” regardless of food intake is 90%, bioavailability is 60–65%. And the drug "Felodipine" bioavailability is only 20-25% (the so-called effect of the main passage through the liver).
- The half-life of the drug "Amlodipine" is about 35-50 hours. Thus, it can be prescribed only 1 time per day. And the half-life of Felodipine is only 11–16 hours.
- The active substance of the drug "Amlodipine" is amlodipine. And in the drug “Felodipine”, the main component is felodipine. The names of the active substances of both drugs are the same as the name of the medicines themselves.
Opinions
The medicine “Felodipine”, reviews of which can be found at various medical forums, has earned for the most part approving responses from patients. Patients write that after several days of taking the drug, their well-being improved significantly: the pressure recovered, inexplicable headaches disappeared. And the patients are satisfied with the fact that the medicine has analogues, so if the pharmacy does not have the original, you can easily get a copy of it, because by the action it will be the same.
However, many people are concerned about the fact that this remedy has a lot of side effects, but this applies to all such drugs, and not just Felodipine tablets. Reviews of a negative nature are precisely connected with undesirable reactions after treatment with this agent. Some patients complain of headache, fatigue, “flushing” of blood to the skin of the face. But, unfortunately, this applies to all similar drugs that have a hypotensive, antianginal effect.
Storage conditions, leave from the pharmacy, as well as expiration dates
The drug “Felodipine”, the analogues of which were presented in this article, should be stored in a dry, well-ventilated room, away from the sun. Also, it must be hidden away from children, so that they do not inadvertently find him and swallow pills. The shelf life of this medication is 2 years. The medicine is dispensed strictly according to the doctor's prescription.
Overdose
There are such cases (although they are extremely rare) when patients, for whatever reason (conscious or unconscious), exceed the permissible dose of Felodipine tablets. The instruction for the use of this tool states that in no case should you self-medicate, appoint yourself the right amount of pills. This can lead to a banal overdose, the symptoms of which are expressed in the following: a marked decrease in blood pressure, bradycardia. Treatment in this case should be carried out as follows: the patient is given gastric lavage, activated carbon is given. Then the patient should lie down on the bed and slightly raise his legs. If bradycardia has developed, it is necessary to administer intravenously the natural alkaloid atropine in an amount of 0.5-1.0 mg. If this is not enough, you need to increase the volume of blood plasma by combining a solution of glucose with sodium chloride.
Now you know that the drug "Felodipine" is prescribed for the treatment of hypertension and angina pectoris in adults. This medication has several analogues, some of them even have a similar composition. Therefore, having come to the pharmacy for this medicine and not finding it, a person will not feel difficulties in finding another similar remedy. However, before going for these pills, you must definitely visit a doctor to write a prescription, because without it, the pharmacist simply will not sell these pills.