Promising treatment for morning sickness, but beware long term use
June 12th, 2009 by Jennifer Walker-Journey
A medication commonly prescribed to treat heartburn and slow gastric emptying in people with diabetes is showing promising results in treating the symptoms of morning sickness in women in early pregnancy without risk of harming the unborn child, according to the Associated Press. However, the medication may carry risks for mothers if used long-term.
A study of more than 80,000 births to Israeli women, a country where Reglan, also known as metocloparmide, is routinely prescribed to treat nausea in pregnant women, found that there was no difference in birth defects or other problems among women whether they were taking the drug or not. The study results were reported in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine.
No drugs to treat morning sickness are currently approved for use in the U.S. Many women worry about using medication to treat morning sickness for fear of birth defects. In the 1960s, use of Thalidomide in Europe and Canada resulted in babies born with missing or shortened limbs. Another medication, Bendectin, was pulled from the market in 1983 after reports of limb deformities.
Reglan may cause side effects, such as sedation, insomnia, depression and anxiety. Long-term use of the medication has been linked to a permanent involuntary muscle movement known as Tardive Dyskinesia, which has prompted the FDA to require its manufacturer to include a black box warning on its label. Tardive Dyskinesia is a serious condition in which a person develops Parkinson’s-like symptoms such as lip smacking, tongue thrusting, eye blinking and bulging, head jerking and facial grimacing. Even after the medication is discontinued, the condition may not go away and may severely affect one’s ability to work or perform household duties.
An estimated 2 million people use some form of metoclopramide.