There are five methods that doctors deem to be most effective in improving the probability of succeeding in treating the condition known as urticaria. Urticaria is not a term that many people are familiar with; instead they are more familiar with its other name, which is "hives". For purposes of this discussion, we shall use hives to refer to the condition. This is a more user-friendly way to discuss this condition since we are not all medical professionals. Now let us try to take a look and understand the five methods that doctors are employing in order to increase the chances of treating hives more successful.

In order to enhance the chances of succeeding in treating urticaria, doctors make it a point to check and double check that they have made the correct diagnosis. Think about it: if the diagnosis is wrong, there is absolutely no hope of the treatment ever succeeding. There is still a high probability that the skin hives would be misdiagnosed despite the fact that they are easily recognizable and differentiated. If skin hive treatments are applied when the skin condition is actually something else, there would be no relief to be had by the patient because the treatment wouldn't match. There would be a better management of the skin condition if the doctor is one hundred percent that he is truly dealing with skin hives. This often involves carefully taking history notes from the patient, and in many cases, examining the patient's skin carefully (with particular attention being naturally paid to the spots where the hives are being seen). This step alone enhances the probability of treatment success considerably and there is no argument about that.

The second method used by doctors to enhance the probability of success when treating hives is that of digging deep, in terms of making serious attempts at identifying the root causes of each individual patient's case of hives. In some cases, this turns out to be a rather straightforward thing to do: because the patients can connect the incidence of hives with specific things or events. There are instances, however, when this could take a long time. There is also the risk that, in the end, they wouldn't be able to clearly identify the root cause of the hives.

The use of antihistamines and other medications would be usually endorsed by many doctors in order to facilitate the treatments for skin hives. In the event that the skin hives are closely related to histamines, this method is particularly helpful. Many people find this method to be a safe one, not to mention affordable and cheap, thereby allowing more people to be able to fight off skin hives.

The treatment of skin hives would also be vastly improved if doctors prescribe the nuse of anti-depressant medications. Drugs such as Doxepin are proven to be effective. However, there are doctors who would not look too kindly at making this drug for long-term use because of potential side effects.

The fifth method used by doctors to enhance the probability of success when treating urticaria is that of prescribing medications in the corticosteroids class. Despite being effective, however, these drugs have a less than impressive safety profile. That alone is reason enough for doctors not to put too much trust in them especially in the long term.