The dictionary meaning of ulcer is “a circumscribed inflammatory and often suppurating lesion on the skin or an internal mucous surface resulting in necrosis of tissue”. In simple words, ulcers are open sores or lesions which won’t heal. In most instances, ulcers refer to peptic ulcers. They have their development in different areas of the body and according to the places, they are attributed by different names. Ulcers which affect the inside lining of the stomach are known as stomach ulcers or gastric ulcers, and those which grow in the esophagus are known as esophageal ulcers. The duodenum (“the part of the small intestine between the stomach and the jejunum”) is also an area which is also affected, and in this case, they are known as duodenal ulcers. Before providing you with information on peptic ulcer medication, I guess it would be beneficial for you to know about the different symptoms of ulcers.
Ulcer Symptoms
Specifically, there is one classic symptom of the development of ulcers in the body, and that is a burning pain. Now, the nature of this pain and occurrence are the ones which consist of the symptoms. The pain can be felt to be originating from the areas that lie between the navel and breastbone. It may seem to bother for a few minutes and in some cases, may even continue for several hours. It is also common for the pain to become worse when the stomach is empty. Most people experience relief from the pain upon eating certain foods or using acid-reducing medications. Other ulcer symptoms include the pain flaring up at night and disappearing and recurring back for a few days or weeks.
Now that you are aware about what signs and symptoms may be indicative of the development of ulcers, now we can head towards our next topic of ulcer medication.
Ulcer Treatment – Medication
The H. pylori bacteria is known to be the responsible factor for causing ulcers in the body. So, the main aim of using ulcer pain medication is to eliminate the bacteria from the system. Also, ulcer medication ensures the reduction of acid in the digestive system as doing this helps in relieving the burning pain and hasten the recovery. So with an approach of these two purposes at the same time, ulcer medication may involve the inclusion of two or more kinds of drugs.
The first class of ulcer medication includes a combination of antibiotics to get rid of the H. pylori bacteria. The standard drugs which are usually prescribed by doctors include:
Amoxicillin (Amoxil)
Clarithromycin (Biaxin)
Metronidazole (Flagyl)
Patients might be put on a combination of any two of these drugs, along with acid suppressor. Depending on the type of the pathogen and its number, patients might be required to continue taking the medication for about two weeks.
The other kind of ulcer medication includes acid blockers. These drugs work to reduce the amount of hydrochloric acid released in the digestive tract. This, as mentioned, helps in managing the pain and speeds up the recovery time. A substance known as histamine, when reacts with histamine receptors, the acid is produced. So, what these acid blockers do is they keep histamine from reaching the receptors. Commonly prescribed or obtained as over the counter ulcer medication for this purpose include:
Ranitidine (Zantac)
Famotidine (Pepcid)
Cimetidine (Tagamet)
Nizatidine (Axid)
Antacids are what we will discuss now in this segment. These drugs may be recommended to be taken in conjunction with acid blockers or instead of the same. These medicines do not reduce the acid secretion, but help to neutralize what is left in the stomach and provides relief from the burning pain.
The cells which secrete stomach acid have tiny pumps in them which do the work. So, to shut down these pumps, medical science came up with proton pump inhibitors. The common ones include:
Omeprazole (Prilosec)
Lansoprazole (Prevacid)
Rabeprazole (Aciphex)
Esomeprazole (Nexium)
There are some ulcer medication side effects which may arise in the case of proton pump inhibitors. The side effect is of a hip fracture, but it only arises due to long-term use of the medication. You may like to get some additional knowledge on stomach ulcer medication and peptic ulcer treatment.
The last type of ulcer medication which I am going to put down here are known as cytoprotective agents. These drugs, basically, are for protecting the tissues that line your stomach and small intestine. Prescription drugs include the names sucralfate (Carafate) and misoprostol (Cytotec) and one which can be availed without prescription is subsalicylate (Pepto-Bismol).
And as far as mouth ulcer medication is concerned, in some cases, the medicines which have been mentioned may be put to use. However, antimicrobial mouthwash and corticosteroids may also be recommended. And for your information, mouth ulcer actually refers to canker sores and not to peptic ulcers, which we have discussed in this article.