Indomethacin (often sold under the Indocin brand name) is the most commonly prescribed anti-inflammatory drug for reducing painful gout swelling.
It acts upon the hormones that cause swelling and pain.
It is available as regular capsules, sustained release capsules, liquid and suppositories.
You may need to take capsules or liquid with milk or food to reduce the chance of stomach upset.
Do not open sustained release (SR) capsules – they must be taken whole.
Over-the-counter medicines can contain similar anti-inflammatory drugs, e.g. Ibuprofen, aspirin.
Do not take any other medication alongside Indomethacin without consulting your doctor.
Never exceed the prescribed dosage.
Always wait the prescribed time before taking your next dose.
If you think you have overdosed, seek emergency medical treatment immediately.
Symptoms of overdose include any of the following:
- Blurred vision
- Breathing
- Dizziness
- Drowsiness
- Headache
- Nausea
- Ringing in the ears
- Seizures
- Stomach pain
- Sweating
- Tingling or numbness
- Urine much reduced or stopped
- Vomiting
Indomethacin Side Effects
Please see the Indomethacin Side Effects page.
Indomethacin Health Warnings
Indomethacin is a member of the NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) group of drugs. All these drugs can have severe, even fatal, effects on the stomach. It is appropriate for short term use, at the lowest dose possible, to treat pain from gout flares, but never for more than a few days.
Vision problems are associated with this drug.
Alternative Spellings
Like many medicines, indomethacin is often misspelled. Though spelling is often overrated, it pays to take extra care with medicines, as a misunderstanding might cause treatment problems in the unlikely event of a similar sounding drug being taken mistakenly.
In the list below, I have included brand names, where the active ingredient is indomethacin alone. When buying medicine, it is usually best to use the generic name rather than a brand name, unless additional active ingredients make the gout medicine more useful to you.
- Indomethocin
a replaced by o.
- indomethasin
thacin replaced by thasin - s instead of c.
- Idomethacin
Indo replaced by Ido - missing n.
- Endomethacin
Indo replaced by Endo.
- Indomecine
thacin replaced by cine. This appears most frequently in Chinese articles.
- Indomethacin Brands
- Common brand names include: Indocin; Indocid; Indomethacinum; Indomethazine; Imbrilon; Metindol; Tannex;
- Indomethicin
a replaced by i. Also gets written as endomethicin.
- Indomethecin
- a replaced by e.
- Indomethcin
- missing a near end.
- Indomethacyn
- cin replaced by cyn - possibly Indonesian or other language.
- Indomethacine
e added at end - French spelling. Also occurs as indometacine.
- Indomenthacin
- meth replaced by menth.
- Indometacin
- A very common alternative (dropping the h), which is the main spelling in some countries. See the indometacin page for more details.
- Indo
- A common abbreviation, but not recommended, as abbreviations can often cause confusion.
- Indomethacin
- This is the correct spelling of the NSAID that is used to
relieve gout pain by reducing inflammation. Full details can be found in
the indomethacin pages in the Anti-Inflammatory Gout Cure part of the Gout Treatment Section.
If you are aware of other alternative spellings or common brand names, please share them on the gout forum.
Indomethacin and Gout Pain
Indometacin works by controlling the bodies reaction to uric acid deposits in the joints. It reduces pain, but does nothing to help reduce those deposits. See the Reaction part of U-D-R-P for more information.
More information in the Indomethacin pages.
