Among patients, hormonal drugs are not very popular. Moreover, many right in the doctor’s office even refuse to use them because of widespread prejudice. In fact, subject to the recommendations given by the doctor, modern drugs in this category are absolutely safe for health. They cause no more side effects than drugs with other active substances. Therefore, if you are prescribed a course of treatment with Lokoid, the instructions for use should become mandatory for you to read and follow. With this approach to treatment, it will be effective and quick, and skin disease will not return in the near future. From our article you will learn how Lokoid helps, its features and contraindications, as well as the main recommendations for use.
Brief characteristics of the drug
Is the drug Lokoid hormonal or not? This question worries every patient at the first prescription of this drug. Therefore, we decided to touch upon this nuance at the very beginning of the article so as not to return to it in the following sections. So, judging by the instructions for use, Lokoid is a hormonal drug that has a soft and powerful effect on the patient’s body. Due to this, in some cases it is even prescribed to infants from the age of six months.
The drug "Lokoid" is produced by a pharmaceutical company from the Netherlands. It is called Astellas and is currently the only supplier of this product to the Russian markets.
The manufacturer has taken care of several forms of drug release. Therefore, it is convenient to use it for people of different ages and with various problems. A similar approach is due to the fact that each form of release has its own list of auxiliary components. If an allergic reaction to one of them occurs, the prescribed medicine can be replaced with its other form.
Forms of drug release
The instructions for use with Lokoid indicate all three of its forms found in Russian pharmacies:
- Cream. It has a white color and a thick consistency.
- Lokoid ointment (reviews about it are found most often). The color of the ointment in the tube is usually close to white, but deviations towards the gray shade are also acceptable. The medicine is characterized by high fat content and does not have a pronounced specific odor.
- Emulsion or Lokoid lotion.
All of the above types of drugs are identical to each other and differ only in excipients.
The composition of the drug and the dosage of the components
The composition of "Lokoid" contains auxiliary substances and one active. All forms of drug release contain hydrocortisone 17-butyrate. This substance is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands that is natural to the human body. However, the medicine uses a synthetic hormone produced in the laboratory. Hydrocortisone, when applied, penetrates all cells that cause skin problems. Due to this, the drug effectively relieves itching, redness and swelling of the tissues. Ointment, lotion and Lokoid cream contain the same amount of active ingredient - one milligram per gram of the drug.
Additional components depend on the form of release of the drug and are intended in order to form the desired consistency and accelerate the penetration of the active substance into the tissues of the body. When we talk about ointment, its auxiliary substances are polyethylene and liquid paraffin. The cream contains more components:
- alcohol;
- liquid paraffin;
- soft paraffin;
- citric acid and the like.
The emulsion also has an extensive list of additional substances:
- oil borage;
- alcohol;
- propylene glycol;
- sodium citrate and so on.
Many patients are trying to understand what is better - Lokoid cream or ointment? Even the attending physician cannot explicitly give recommendations on this score. You can only choose the most suitable form of release experimentally, since the rate of onset of the therapeutic effect depends on a number of individual characteristics of the body .
Once again, all types of this drug are equally effective and give a long-term result even with short-term use.
Pharmacology
The instructions for use with Lokoid describe in detail its pharmacological properties. First of all, I want to mention that the drug belongs to the third class. It is characterized by high activity and medium duration of action.
Inflammatory skin diseases, in which "Lokoid" is prescribed, in most cases are genetically caused lesions of the skin. Due to the active action of the allergen, certain cells begin to produce substances. Those, in turn, become the culprits of itching, swelling and redness. Gradually, other cells are added to the focus of inflammation, and it grows, and unpleasant symptoms intensify. Lokoid in any form penetrates the cells and blocks the production of substances that provoke the development of the disease.
Even a single use of the drug causes a vasoconstrictor effect and suppression of immunity. In parallel, the drug prevents the development of excessive dry skin, which is often accompanied by inflammatory skin diseases.
During treatment, the active substance accumulates in the cells of the epidermis, it enters the bloodstream in small quantities. Partial metabolism is carried out in the liver, and the withdrawal of the drug from the body occurs through the kidneys and intestines.
Lokoid medicine: indications for use
Drugs like Lokoid are widely used in dermatology, as they show consistently high results. Therefore, the list of indications for the use of the drug includes mainly skin inflammatory diseases:
- dermatitis of any nature and course;
- psoriasis;
- eczema;
- non-infectious skin lesions;
- manifestations of allergic reactions.
When prescribing a drug, it is necessary to choose its form. Selection is based on the individual characteristics of the body, as well as the disease, the area of ​​tissue damage and the delivered final result of treatment.
For example, ointment is most often prescribed for chronic skin problems. The ointment is especially effective with increased dryness, peeling and tightness of the epidermis. The doctor usually prescribes the cream for acute and subacute forms of the disease. The emulsion copes well with alleviating the condition of the patient in the presence of wetting skin areas, and it is also indicated for use in situations with thin and overly sensitive epidermis.
Instructions for use of ointment
Most often, the attending physician prescribes the patient to apply the ointment to problem areas of the skin from one to three times a day. The medicine should be distributed over the focus of inflammation in a thin layer. In order to achieve the most rapid effect, it is recommended to do a light massage with your fingertips.
On average, the course of treatment is one week, when a positive result is achieved in a shorter period of time, the drug can be used not three, but twice a day.
Patients should consider that the maximum concentration of Lokoid is sixty grams in seven days. In no case should you exceed the indicated dosage.
In some cases, ointment is indicated under an occlusive dressing. Similar recommendations are issued, for example, with psoriasis. With a certain course of the disease, plaques accumulate in large numbers on a small skin space.
How to apply the cream?
The action of Lokoid in the form of a cream is identical to the effect of ointment. It is also used three times a day for a week. With the rapid onset of a positive effect, it is necessary to reduce the number of applications to two times a week.
The maximum dosage of the drug, as in the previous description, should not exceed sixty grams in seven days.
Emulsion: features of use
We already mentioned that this form of release copes well with wet areas of the skin. She is also often prescribed to treat problems on the scalp.
When applying the lotion to the affected area of ​​the skin, a light massage is recommended. Thus, more rapid penetration of the active component into the tissue occurs.
As reviews of the drug show, it removes the symptoms of the disease in literally one to two days of use. In such situations, it is required to reduce the number of applications of the emulsion on the skin up to three times a week.
The course of treatment in this case usually does not exceed fourteen days.
Side effects
Negative effects in the treatment of Lokoid are infrequent. They can occur in situations where the patient has deliberately exceeded the dosage of the drug. It is not necessary to exclude the features of the patient’s functioning, however, in most patients, the risk of side effects during treatment is still minimized. However, their occurrence should not be completely ruled out.
As a result of clinical studies, frequent and rare possible unwanted side effects have been identified. The first category includes the occurrence of irritation on the skin, the development of arterial hypertension and body fat in the shoulder girdle.
The second group includes problems such as impaired functioning of the adrenal glands, delayed healing of damage to the epidermis and an increase in the focus of inflammation in dermatitis. Enhanced skin pigmentation is rare, but in some cases, Lokoid caused just such an effect.
Treating children
Lokoid for children is used with great care. A doctor can prescribe the drug only starting at six months. It is proved that in the process of metabolism, the drug is split into two components: butyric acid and hydrocortisone. They are quite quickly excreted from the body of a small patient, without harming him. Therefore, pediatricians allow the use of "Locoid" from infancy.
Treatment of babies with the drug has several features. If the lesions are on the face, then the general course of treatment is recommended to be reduced to a minimum. It is also required to do if the child requires the application of occlusive dressings.
When treating babies, great attention should be paid to controlling the growth of the child. A long course of "Lokoid" can cause suppression of adrenal function. As a result, the reproduction of growth hormone will be impaired. The baby may stop gaining weight, and its growth rate will slow down. Therefore, hormone therapy for children should only take place under the strict supervision of the attending physician. Otherwise, serious violations in the development of crumbs are likely.
Analogues of the drug
Emulsion, cream and ointment "Lokoid" analogues have quite a lot. However, even under the condition that they are dispensed without a doctor’s prescription, it is impossible to take hormonal drugs without permission. If you violate this basic rule, a medicine instead of benefit will only bring harm to health.
The most popular analogue of Lokoid ointment is Laticort. Also, Akortin, Cloveit, Afloderm and Dermoveit can be ranked in this category.
On average, the cost of the original drug ranges from two hundred and fifty to three hundred and eighty rubles. Analogues of Lokoid are mostly in the same price range.
Patient Reviews
If you analyze the reviews on the use of Lokoid, it turns out that the vast majority of them are positive. Almost all patients claim that the drug has proven effective after two to three days of use.
From the reviews you can find out that Lokoid gave a positive result in chronic and advanced skin diseases. Patients wrote that dermatitis and psoriasis, which they could not get rid of earlier with the help of other drugs, completely passed even before the end of the full course of treatment with Lokoid. In this case, none of those who left their comments, the disease did not return either a month or a few years later.
About the treatment of children with this tool, many users also leave good reviews. Usually, children are prescribed it as an emergency and stop the course when a positive result is achieved. At the same time, some mothers write that they continue to use Lokoid once in cases of skin rashes and irritation.
A group of patients who had to apply the agent under a bandage note that, in addition to the positive effect, they noticed a negative effect on the skin. After eliminating the problem on the skin there are areas that constantly blush and peel. Moreover, patients failed to get rid of this side effect.
Lokoid received good reviews in the treatment of the first symptoms of skin diseases. Among those patients who managed to take timely measures by contacting a doctor, everyone wrote that after the first days of treatment they received the expected effect and stopped using the drug.
Side effects in reviews are usually written very rarely. Most of the comments contain data that during the treatment process, negative reactions of the body were not noticed. Patients felt well and did not experience any problems after drug withdrawal.
Referring to the reviews about Lokoid ointment and other forms of release of the drug, we can recommend this drug to people with skin diseases of a different nature. Among all hormonal drugs, it has the mildest effect on the body, which allows it to be prescribed even to children from a very young age. However, I would like to clarify once again that it is impossible to buy and use Lokoid without consulting a doctor. Perhaps in your case a different drug will work.