Doctor: woman's 'essential tremors' caused by heartburn drug Reglan
September 10th, 2010 by Jennifer Walker-Journey
Things were bad enough for Melissa.* She suffers from a gastrointestinal disorder that has compromised her lifestyle. But nothing prepared her for the problems she would have from the medication used to treat her condition. “I was just diagnosed with essential tremors from Reglan (metoclopramide),” she posted on the Inspire community billboard. “Great … another thing to deal with.”
Essential tremors is a slowly progressive neurological disorder that is most recognized by tremors of the arms during voluntary movements such as eating and writing. Essential tremors may also occur in the head or neck, jaw and voice as well as other body regions. It is not unlike tardive dyskinesia, another neurological disorder that causes involuntary movements of the muscles and can include lip smacking, tongue thrusting, eye blinking and bulging, head jerking, facial grimacing, puckering and pursing of the lips, and involuntary movements of the fingers.
The heartburn medication Melissa was prescribed, Reglan, also known by the generic name metoclopramide, has a black box warning on its safety label stating that patients taking the drug are at risk for developing the movement disorder.
“I am so sorry to hear you have tremors,” Gina responded to Melissa. “I was on Reglan … and I heard all the awful reports about tardive dyskinesia. Did you know that people are now suing for damages because of this drug? Look on the Internet. It’s full of ads of lawyers and warnings about this rotten drug that needs to be removed from the market.”
Gina is correct. In fact, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against the makers of metoclopramide from people who are suffering from tardive dyskinesia and claim they were not adequately warned that they could develop the condition. Tardive dyskinesia is debilitating. There is no known cure, and the symptoms often linger even after the medication has been stopped. Those who have filed lawsuits say they would never have taken the drug if they knew it would harm them.