Treatment with clopidogrel prevents blood clots from forming in your arteries. This medicine helps reduce your risk of stroke or heart attack.
Clopidogrel may be used to:
This medicine is usually taken as a pill. Your doctor may change your dose from time to time.
See also: Aspirin and heart disease
Side effects of this medicine may include diarrhea, skin rash, itching, nausea, or stomach pain. Before you start taking clopidogrel, tell your doctor if:
Take this medicine with food and plenty of water to lower side effects. You may need to stop taking clopidogrel before you have surgery or dental work. Do NOT just stop taking your medicine without talking with your doctor or nurse first.
Talk with your doctor before taking any of these drugs:
Do not take other drugs that may have aspirin or ibuprofen in them. Read the labels on cold and flu medicines. Ask your doctor what other medicines are safe for you to take for aches and pains, colds, or the flu.
Tell your doctor if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant, or breastfeeding or planning to breastfeed. Women in the later stages of pregnancy should not take clopidogrel. Clopidogrel can also be passed to infants through breast milk.
If you miss a dose:
Store these drugs and all other medicines in a cool, dry place. Keep them where children cannot get to them.
Call your doctor if you have any of these side effects and they do not go away:
Blood thinners - clopidogrel; Antiplatelet therapy - clopidogrel
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Kushner FG, Hand M, Smith SC Jr, King SB 3rd, Anderson JL, Antman EM, et al. 2009 Focused Updates: ACC/AHA Guidelines for the Management of Patients With ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (updating the 2004 Guideline and 2007 Focused Update) and ACC/AHA/SCAI Guidelines on Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (updating the 2005 Guideline and 2007 Focused Update): a report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines. Circulation. 2009 Dec 1;120(22):2271-306.
Sobel M, Verhaeghe R; American College of Chest Physicians. Antithrombotic therapy for peripheral artery occlusive disease: American College of Chest Physicians Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines (8th Edition). Chest. 2008;133:815S-843S.
Vorchheimer DA, et al. The primary and secondary prevention of coronary artery disease: American College of Chest Physicians Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines (8th Edition). Chest. 2008;133(6 Suppl):776S-814S.
Updated by: Michael A. Chen, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington Medical School, Seattle, Washington. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M. Health Solutions, Ebix, Inc.
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