While the journal Prescrire has just published an analysis estimating that 25 to 120 sudden deaths would be due to Motilium in 2012. Several experts believe that it is time to withdraw it from the market.
Should Motilium be withdrawn from the market? For the independent review Prescribe, The question is no longer asked. Not only is this anti-emetic agent moderately effective, but the increased cardiac risk it entails makes it the next drug to be quickly released from family pharmacies. But the editorial staff of this medical journal is not the only one to point the finger at Motilium and its generics, other specialists, in particular pharmacologists, confirm this need to withdraw this drug from sale. Pr Gilles Bouvenot, ex-president of the Transparency Commission at HAS told Le Parisien: “Prescribing is right. Given the adverse effects and the fact that there are many therapeutic alternatives, if I were still President of the Commission, I would vote for its delisting “.
Pending a withdrawal decision or new usual precautions from the European Medicines Agency, which should take place next March, what should patients do who still have one or more boxes of Motilium in their possession? ? Can it be safely absorbed to fight nausea and vomiting or should it be gotten rid of? Why actor asked Prof. François Chast, head of the clinical pharmacy service at the Cochin-Hôtel Dieu hospital in Paris. He is one of the experts who believe that Motilium should be withdrawn from the market.
Should we get rid of Motilium in family pharmacies?
Prof. François Chast : The answer will be simpler when we have more Motilium on the market. Today the use of this drug is justified only when one really has problems of recurrent and severe nausea, for example following drug treatments such as cancer chemotherapy.
In whom do you think this medication is really contraindicated?
Prof. François Chast : Using Motilium is not trivial. It is a drug that should be contraindicated in children, especially in the elderly when they have kidney failure or are dehydrated. Likewise, among people with cardiac arrhythmias, there is a whole body of argument that argues for stopping the marketing of these products.
If we no longer want to use Motilium, what are the alternatives?
Prof. François Chast : Already, the decrease in emetic poisons (Editor’s note. Which causes vomiting) such as alcohol and tobacco would already allow the use of this type of product to be halved. There would be a collapse in the consumption of these antiemetic products. Replacing a glass of wine with a glass of water never hurts, and minimizes the risk of nausea in roughly half of Motilium users. Obesity is also a risk factor for chronic nausea or digestive disorders.
18% of 0-4 year olds took Motilium in 2012, is it worrying?
Prof. François Chast : It’s huge ! And it is probably inappropriate, Motilium is a drug which is close to neuroleptics. In the same way that Phenergan was used 30 years ago in children who were a little restless and that we no longer use at all because we noticed the very incisive nature of this drug and well that is the same for Motilium. In 5 years, we will tell ourselves, but how we were able to use this drug in toddlers.
Exactly for children, what can we give them instead of the Motilium?
Prof. François Chast : Medication is never the only solution! Again in children, it is to fight against food allergies. Preserve the child from family stress and that of school and with that you already have many elements that will allow the child to limit nausea and vomiting which are a plague for him and a great benefit for the industry .
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