Overload
Anti-emetics
Category: Medicines
Type
Involuntary
Introduction and description
Anti-emetics aim to treat nausea and feelings of sickness, as well as helping with actual vomiting.
They may be used in cases of motion sickness or following treatment by, for example, chemotherapy.
Generally if one is sick - nauseous or vomiting - there is a good reason - one has ingested a toxin and it needs to be expelled, however, occasionally the toxin has been given to us by the medical profession in the first place!
Side effects
There is something very odd happening in the prescribing of this class of drugs. Given that the class is intended to be used as a one-off treatment for the nausea being suffered by people who need very temporary help, whilst the cause is identified, one would expect any side effects to be only experienced once. But the ehealthme website shows that for a drug like Ondansetron, for example, there are side-effects that last for years. The table below is an extract from one that lists symptoms that continue for over ten years.
Most common side effects over time :
< 1 month |
1 - 6 months |
6 - 12 months |
1 - 2 years |
2 - 5 years |
Vomiting |
Diarrhoea |
Chloroma |
Tooth Extraction |
Dysgeusia |
Nausea |
Nausea |
Myelodysplastic Syndrome |
Osteonecrosis |
Hypersensitivity |
Hypotension |
Melaena |
Fever |
Diverticulitis |
Vertigo |
Cardiac Arrest |
Dehydration |
Stiffness In A Joint |
Jaw Disorder |
Visual Acuity Reduced |
Dyspnoea |
Pyrexia |
Hallucinations |
Abdominal Pain Lower |
Lightheadedness - Fainting |
Multi-organ Failure |
Pain In Jaw |
Petechiae |
Pain - Joints |
Decreased Appetite |
Pyrexia |
Abdominal Pain Upper |
Blindness |
Gingival Disorder |
Migraine |
Dehydration |
Skin Disorder |
Hyponatraemia |
Thrombocytopenia |
Nausea |
Pneumonia |
Thrombocytopenia |
Hyperthermia Malignant |
Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome |
Nausea And Vomiting |
Febrile Neutropenia |
Hepatocellular Damage |
Mood Disorder Due To A General Medical Condition |
Fluid Retention |
Ondansetron , originally marketed under the brand name Zofran, is a serotonin 5-HT3 receptor antagonist used to prevent nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery and gastroenteritis.
Not only does this table appear to imply it does not prevent nausea or vomiting, but all sorts of long term effects appear to follow.
If we now take another drug Metoclopramide and look at the most frequently occurring side-effects we find:
Most common side effects by gender :
Female | Male |
Tardive Dyskinesia | Tardive Dyskinesia |
Extrapyramidal Disorder | Extrapyramidal Disorder |
Nervous System Disorder | Nervous System Disorder |
Dystonia | Dystonia |
Pain | Pain |
Anxiety | Anxiety |
Movement Disorder | Activities Of Daily Living Impaired |
Activities Of Daily Living Impaired | Movement Disorder |
Dyskinesia | Dyskinesia |
Deformity | Nausea |
We can see that in males at least it does not prevent nausea, it appears to cause it.
Death
One would not expect that a class of drug designed to stop you being sick caused deaths, but it would appear from the information recorded on eHealthme, using Adverse Drug Reports sent by doctors to the FDA and SEDA, that they do, here are the figures:
Ondansetron - On Jul, 30, 2015: 2,839 people reported to have side effects when taking Ondansetron. Among them, 38 people (1.34%) have Death
Zofran - On Jul, 21, 2015: 348 people reported to have side effects when taking Zofran. Among them, 3 people (0.86%) have Death
Metoclopramide - On Jul, 20, 2015: 37,374 people reported to have side effects when taking Metoclopramide. Among them, 627 people (1.68%) have Death
Maxolon - On Jul, 15, 2015: 977 people reported to have side effects when taking Maxolon. Among them, 20 people (2.05%) have Death
Reglan - On Jul, 29, 2015: 19,660 people reported to have side effects when taking Reglan. Among them, 383 people (1.95%) have Death
Anzemet - On Aug, 8, 2015: 2,176 people reported to have side effects when taking Anzemet. Among them, 52 people (2.39%) have Death.
Kytril - On Aug, 8, 2015: 7,699 people reported to have side effects when taking Kytril. Among them, 160 people (2.08%) have Death
Aloxi - On Aug, 8, 2015: 2,465 people reported to have side effects when taking Aloxi. Among them, 135 people (5.48%) have Death.
Droperidol - On Aug, 8, 2015: 1,386 people reported to have side effects when taking Droperidol. Among them, 74 people (5.34%) have Death.
Compazine - On Aug, 4, 2015: 5,737 people reported to have side effects when taking Compazine. Among them, 296 people (5.16%) have Death
Emend - On Aug, 6, 2015: 3,247 people reported to have side effects when taking Emend. Among them, 109 people (3.36%) have Death
Diphenhydramine hydrochloride - On Aug, 8, 2015: 2,053 people reported to have side effects when taking Diphenhydramine hydrochloride. Among them, 76 people (3.70%) have Death
Dimenhydrinate - On Jul, 11, 2015: 964 people reported to have side effects when taking Dimenhydrinate. Among them, 22 people (2.28%) have Death.
Doxylamine - On Jul, 19, 2015: 424 people reported to have side effects when taking Doxylamine succinate. Among them, 6 people (1.42%) have Death
Meclizine - On Jul, 15, 2015: 5,373 people reported to have side effects when taking Meclizine. Among them, 102 people (1.90%) have Death.
Promethazine - On Aug, 1, 2015: 619 people reported to have side effects when taking Promethazine. Among them, 19 people (3.07%) have Death
Vistaril - On Jul, 13, 2015: 4,028 people reported to have side effects when taking Vistaril. Among them, 53 people (1.32%) have Death
How it works
A number of differently acting drugs are often grouped together within this class making it difficult to work out what is actually going on when anyone gets an hallucination or other experience.
Some drugs based on scopolamine, for example, are classed as anti-emetics, as are some based on serotonin antagonistic action. Thus one has to look at the observations to work out why the hallucinations took place.
References and further reading
The photos on this page are by Evgeny Kolesnik
Observations
The table below summarises the number of hallucinations from the eHealthme web site and uses figures correct as at 2010. The links take you to the full-side effects for each drug and thus current figures for hallucinations
Medicine |
Total number of hallucinations |
78 |
|
46 |
|
76 |
|
34 |
|
8 |
|
13 |
|
23 |
|
8 |
|
13 |
|
104 |
|
9 |
|
77 |
|
4 |
|
11 |
|
29 |
|
47 |
|
118 |
|
TOTAL |
698 |
Tropisetron - is a serotonin 5-HT3 receptor antagonist used mainly as an antiemetic to treat nausea and vomiting following chemotherapy, although it has been used experimentally as an analgesic in cases of fibromyalgia. It is marketed in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines as Navoban, but is not available in the U.S, hence no figures for hallucinations are available
Domperidone (INN, USAN, BAN, JAN) (trade names Motilium, Motillium, Motinorm Costi, Nomit, Brulium Molax) is a medication that acts as a peripherally-selective antagonist of the dopamine D2 and D3 receptors. It is given in order to relieve nausea and vomiting . As a European drug figures are ot available from eHealthme.
Alizapride (Litican, Plitican, Superan, Vergentan) is a dopamine antagonist used in the treatment of nausea and vomiting, including postoperative nausea and vomiting. No figures were available.
Cyclizine is an antihistamine drug used to treat nausea, vomiting and dizziness associated with motion sickness, vertigo and post-operatively following administration of general anaesthesia and opioids. No figures were available from eHealthme, but Wikipedia says "Some people have combined cyclizine with their methadone dose, ... to produce strong psychoactive effects. It has also been used recreationally for its anticholinergic effects to induce hallucinations."
Related observations
Healing observations
- Cannabinoids for control of chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting: quantitative systematic review 017342
- Saved from Addiction Ibogaine by Lightofiboga 017439
- Stephen Harrod Buhner - Herbal Antivirals - Ginger 017501
- Therapeutics Education Collaboration - Bohemian Polypharmacy 012489
Hallucination
- Adverse reaction to drugs in children, experiences with spontaneous monitoring in The Netherlands. 017340
- Aloxi 017339
- Aloxi 017980
- Anzemet 017337
- Cannabinoids for control of chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting: quantitative systematic review 017342
- Clopra 018215
- Common Drugs May Cause Cognitive Problems 021361
- Compazine 017343
- Delirium due to scopolamine patch in a 4-year-old boy 020074
- Delirium from anti-emetic 006863
- Dimenhydrinate 002098
- Diphenhydramine 002100
- Doxylamine 002104
- Dr Penny Sartori - Hallucinations are usually caused by pharmaceuticals in hospitals 014533
- Droperidol 001494
- Droperidol 017341
- Emend 017344
- Granisetron hydrochloride 019094
- Hydroxizine, Vistaril and Atarax 017345
- Justin Kaplan - Besieged by despotic aliens 012142
- Kytril 017338
- Maxolon or Metaclopramide 017335
- Meclozine 002111
- Metoclopramide 019525
- Mirtazapine [use and abuse] 024094
- Motion sickness and hallucinations 005267
- Nabilone and Cesamet 017360
- Novamine 15 019713
- Ondansetron 005699
- Ondansetron 019807
- People coming through the walls 005255
- Phenergan 015655
- Poisoning from dermal absorption of promethazine 023515
- Prochlorperazine, Edisylate and Maleate 019865
- Promethazine 002116
- Reglan 017336
- Reglan 015692
- Remeron 015694
- Saved from Addiction Ibogaine by Lightofiboga 017439
- Scopolamine [pharmaceutical] 024150
- Serotonergic or Anticholinergic Toxidrome: Case Report of a 9-Year-Old Girl 020086
- Sudden infant deaths and cough syrup 017476
- Tigan 020206
- Transderm Scop 020067
- Zofran and Zofran Odt 020469