How Should I Take Lipitor?

Patients are advised to take Lipitor exactly as prescribed by the doctor and should never stop or alter the dosage without consulting the doctor. Following usage instructions must be followed by the patients in order to have best effect of the drug:

Drug therapy are usually taken over a prolonged duration or indefinitely and therefore patients must take Lipitor for the entire prescribed duration to keep the cholesterol level in control.
Atorvastatin should be taken once in a day and the patients should take the drug at the same time every day.
The tablet can be taken with or without food.
The Lipitor tablet should not be broken.
Patients must take low-fat diet while taking this medicine.

Dosage Instructions

Atorvastatin dosages are determined by the doctor depending upon the patient’s age, medical condition for which they are treated, other medical conditions they may be having and other medications that they might be using.

The recommended starting dose of Lipitor for most of the patients is 10 mg to 20 mg of Lipitor taken once in a day.
Patients having extremely high level of cholesterol may be advised to start with 40 mg of Lipitor once in day.
Children between the age group of ten to seventeen years are recommended with 10 mg of Lipitor taken once in day and in some cases children are advised with the dosage of 20 mg of Lipitor in a day.

Missed and Overdose of Lipitor

If any patient has missed a dose of Lipitor then the patient should take it upon remembering it. One should not take the drug if it has been more than 12 hours since one missed the last dose. One should wait and start with regular dosing schedule. In any case one should not take 2 doses of Lipitor at the same time.

If overdose of Lipitor is suspected then the victim must be provided with immediate medical help. One can also consult to their local poison helpline for immediate help.

Storage

Atorvastatin must be ideally stored at room temperature of 20 to 25°C. The drug should be kept out of the reach of children and pets. All unused and expired medications must be safely disposed.