Curing Pericarditis?

A bit of general info re this topic:

Treatment for acute pericarditis (sudden onset) may include medication for pain and inflammation, such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, including ibuprofen in large doses. Depending on the cause of your pericarditis, your doctor may prescribe an antibiotic (for bacterial pericarditis) or an antifungal medication (for fungal pericarditis).

If your symptoms last longer than two weeks or recur over subsequent months, your doctor may prescribe an anti-inflammatory drug called colchicine in combination with the ibuprofen. Colchicine is an older and well-established anti-inflammatory drug that can help control the inflammation and prevent pericarditis from recurring weeks or even months later.

When high doses of ibuprofen are prescribed, your doctor may prescribe medications to offset gastrointestinal symptoms. If you are taking high doses of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, you should be monitored with frequent follow-up appointments to evaluate changes in kidney or liver function.

A small number of patients will develop chronic pericarditis, a condition that persists despite treatment, or that comes back (recurrent pericarditis). These patients may need to take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or colchicine for several years, even when they are feeling well.

Previous treatment included the use of steroids, such as prednisone; however, this has been found in many cases to cause dependency on the medication to prevent a return of symptoms. In addition, steroids can reactivate the original viral infection. Furthermore, some patients can become dependent on narcotics for pain control. _{Reference: Cleveland Clinic}