Should I talk to my doctor about different dosing?

When your doctor prescribes a drug for you, he or she will usually start with the lowest possible dose. The goal is to get the benefit of the drug while keeping the dose down. This helps cut back on side effects and interactions with any other drugs you need to take. Often, that original dose works well and we can stay with it for as long as you need the drug. Sometimes, though, the lowest dose isn’t enough and we need to raise it until the level is high enough to be beneficial. And sometimes we overshoot and prescribe a dose that turns out to be too high for you.

How can you tell if you need a different dose of a drug? Sometimes you can tell yourself. If a pain drug isn’t helping, for example, you might need a larger dose. And if the drug is making you feel drowsy and dopey all the time, a lower dose might be needed. For some drugs, such as those for high cholesterol, you can’t tell yourself if the drug is working. Your doctor will order blood tests to find out if the dose is effective. For any drug, unpleasant side effects or interactions with your other needed drugs tell us that the dose may need to be changed.

If you think a drug you’re taking isn’t helping or is causing problems, call your doctor. Don’t decide to stop taking the drug or take a lower, higher, or more frequent dose on your own. Your doctor has prescribed the drug for a reason and stopping it or changing the dose could be dangerous. When a drug doesn’t help or causes a lot of unpleasant side effects, your doctor may suggest changing the dose or switching to a different medication.