To have voluminous buttocks, some women take an antiallergic drug whose merits they praise on social networks like TikTok. But, this practice can put health at risk.
- Women use an antiallergic drug to enlarge and increase the volume of their buttocks.
- This is an over-the-counter medicine called Periactin, which has the active ingredient cyproheptadine.
- Misuse of this drug can lead to adverse health side effects.
THE “skinny”, that is to say thin in English, want to have shapes while remaining very fine. In other words, having large buttocks and breasts. To achieve this, some women take an anti-allergy medication. A practice that can be dangerous.
Periactin: this drug diverted to have big buttocks
On social networks, it is the trend in vogue: take Periactin, which has as its active ingredient the cyproheptadine, to increase the volume of her buttocks. According to Vidal, it is an antihistamine antiallergic drug which also has atropine properties (similar effect to atropine, that is to say which relieves spasms, Editor’s note) and sedative properties. It is used in the treatment of various allergic manifestations: allergic rhinitis or conjunctivitis, urticaria.
Internet users explain that they had trouble gaining weight until taking this drug which allowed them, in just a few weeks, to get the body they dreamed of. As proof, many publish photos of them before / after.
But diverting the use of a drug is risky, even if, like Periactin, it is available over the counter. The French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (SFPT) pleads precisely so that, at a minimum, the prescription of it becomes compulsory.
Adverse effects in case of misuse of the drug
“Cyproheptadine, which no longer has a place in the therapeutic strategy as an antihistamine and sees its misuse, exposes to many adverse effects (neurological, psychiatric, cardiac, hematological or digestive), can we read in a communicated published on March 28. The SFPT considers that the risk-benefit ratio of cyproheptadine should be reassessed with a view to withdrawing its marketing authorization or at least its inclusion on a mandatory prescription list.”
Asked by Agence France Presse (AFP), Dr. Laurent Chouchana, in charge of the pharmacovigilance of cyproheptadine and member of the SFPT, indicates that the possible side effects can be serious “especially if there is an overdose, which is the case if one bases oneself on the doses proposed in the videos on the internet.”
At the start of its commercialization in the 1970s, cyproheptadine was prescribed to stimulate the appetite. But this indication was withdrawn in 1994 because the benefit/risk balance was not satisfactory.
“Some accounts on social networks also offer the direct resale of cyproheptadine in tablet or syrup for aesthetic purposes, indicates the SFPT in its press release. The sale on the internet and the sale in community pharmacies without a prescription thus facilitates access to cyproheptadine in the context of misuse.”