Dec 10, 2008

Medicine allergy

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Hello everyone. i am allergic to prochlorperazine. today i did my research and this is what i got. (i nearly cried reading some parts because they were trueeeeeeeeeee. and im going to wake my mom up now to tell her these things.)

Prochlorperazine (Stemetil)
In higher doses it is used in the treatment of psychiatric illnesses. In lower doses it is used in the management of nausea and vomiting.

Prochlorperazine works by blocking dopamine receptors in the brain. Dopamine is a natural compound called a neurotransmitter, and is involved in transmitting messages between brain cells. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter known to be involved in regulating mood and behaviour, amongst other things.

Prochlorperazine also affects dopamine receptors in an area of the brain that controls nausea and vomiting. Vomiting is controlled by an area of the brain called the vomiting centre. The vomiting centre is responsible for causing feelings of sickness (nausea) and for the vomiting reflex. It is activated when it receives nerve messages from another area of the brain called the chemoreceptor trigger zone (CTZ) and when it receives nerve messages from the gut.

Prochlorperazine controls nausea and vomiting by blocking dopamine receptors found in the CTZ. This stops the CTZ from sending the messages to the vomiting centre that would otherwise cause nausea and vomiting.

In adults, Stemetil is used for the conditions below.


Psychotic illness such as schizophrenia.

Acute mania.

Short-term treatment of severe anxiety.

Treatment and prevention of nausea and vomiting.

Relieving nausea, vomiting and attacks of dizziness or spinning sensations (vertigo) associated with Meniere's disease and other inner ear disorders.
Warnings:
This medicine may cause drowsiness. If affected do not drive or operate machinery. Alcohol should be avoided because it can make drowsiness worse.

This medicine can occasionally cause your blood pressure to drop when you move from a lying down or sitting position to sitting or standing, especially when you first start taking the medicine. This may make you feel dizzy or unsteady. To avoid this try getting up slowly. If you do feel dizzy, sit or lie down until the symptoms pass.

This medicine may make your skin more sensitive to sunlight than it usually is, so you should avoid exposing your skin to direct sunlight or sunlamps until you know how your skin reacts. If you can't avoid strong sunlight you should use a sunscreen lotion or make sure your skin is protected with clothing.

If you have been taking high doses of this medicine for a long time, for example to treat schizophrenia, you should not suddenly stop taking it unless your doctor tells you to, even if you feel better and think you don't need it any more. This is because the medicine controls the symptoms of the illness but doesn't actually cure it. This means that if you suddenly stop treatment your symptoms could come back. Stopping the medicine suddenly may also rarely cause withdrawal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, difficulty sleeping or tremor. When treatment with this medicine is stopped, it should be done gradually, following the instructions given by your doctor.

This medicine may rarely cause a decrease in the normal amounts of white blood cells in the blood. For this reason, if you are taking high doses of this medicine for a long time your doctor may want you to have regular blood tests to check the levels of blood cells in your blood. You should consult your doctor immediately if you experience any of the following symptoms while taking this medicine, as they may indicate a problem with your blood cells: unexplained sore throat, mouth ulcers, infections, high temperature (fever) or general illness.

Consult your doctor immediately if you experience the following symptoms while taking this medicine: high temperature (fever), pale complexion, sweating, muscle stiffness, fast heartbeat and decreased consciousness. These symptoms may be due to a rare but serious side effect of this type of medicine, known as the neuroleptic malignant syndrome, and your treatment may need to be stopped.
Use with caution in

Elderly people.

Decreased kidney function.

Decreased liver function.

Heart disease.

Slow heart rate (bradycardia).

People with a personal or family history of an abnormal heart rhythm seen on a heart monitoring trace (ECG) as a 'prolonged QT interval'.

Low levels of potassium, calcium or magnesium in the blood (hypokalaemia, hypocalcaemia or hypomagnesaemia).

Malnutrition.

Dehydration.

Alcohol abuse.

Underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism).

Tumour of the adrenal gland (phaeochromocytoma).

Enlarged prostate gland (prostatic hypertrophy).

Parkinson's disease.

Abnormal muscle weakness (myasthenia gravis).

History of seizures (fits) eg epilepsy.

People with risk factors for having a stroke.

History of closed angle glaucoma.

History of a drop in the normal number of white blood cells in the blood.

Allergy to other phenothiazine medicines, eg chlorpromazine, trifluoperazine.
Side effects

Medicines and their possible side effects can affect individual people in different ways. The following are some of the side effects that are known to be associated with this medicine. Just because a side effect is stated here does not mean that all people using this medicine will experience that or any side effect.

Drowsiness.

Dry mouth.

Difficulty sleeping (insomnia).

Skin rashes.

Stuffy nose.

A drop in blood pressure that occurs when moving from a lying down or sitting position to sitting or standing, which results in dizziness and lightheadedness (postural hypotension).

Abnormal movements of the hands, legs, face, neck and tongue, eg shakiness, twitching, rigidity.

Anxiety, restlessness and agitation (akathisia).

Rhythmical involuntary movements of the tongue, face, mouth and jaw, which may sometimes be accompanied by involuntary movements of the arms and legs (tardive dyskinesia).

Increased sensitivity of the skin to UV light (photosensitivity).

Interference with the body's temperature regulation (this is more common in elderly people and can cause heat stroke in very hot weather or hypothermia in very cold weather).

Decrease in the numbers of a type of white blood cell (neutrophil) in the blood (neutropenia).

Sudden severe deficiency in the number of white blood cells in the blood (agranulocytosis).

Abnormal heart beats (arrhythmias).

Yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice).

High blood prolactin (milk producing hormone) level (hyperprolactinaemia). Rarely this may lead to symptoms such as breast enlargement or production of milk.

Impotence.

Changes in menstrual periods.
There may be an increase in side effects such as dry mouth, constipation, confusion or heat stroke (in hot and humid conditions) if prochlorperazine is taken with other medicines that have anticholinergic effects, such as the following:

anticholinergic medicines for Parkinson's symptoms, eg procyclidine

antihistamines, eg brompheniramine, chlorphenamine

antispasmodic medicines, eg hyoscine

medicines for urinary incontinence, eg oxybutynin, flavoxate, tolterodine, propiverine, trospium

muscle relaxants, eg baclofen

MAOI antidepressants, eg phenelzine

tricyclic antidepressants, eg amitriptyline

other antipsychotic medicines

other antisickness medicines, eg promethazine, meclozine, cyclizine.

Epilepsy.

Epileptic attacks happen when an abnormal electrical discharge occurs in the brain, disturbing its normal function. The type of seizure depends upon where this takes place, and how much of the brain is affected. During an attack, these discharges may cause:

twitching of the muscles

abnormal sensations (eg tingling on one side of the body or awareness of a strange taste or smell)

emotional symptoms such as fear or 'deja vu '

loss of consciousness.

Flickering lights, such as strobe lights in nightclubs, can trigger seizures in some people. If this is the case, clubs with strobes are best avoided. It is also sensible to avoid playing computer games for long periods of time as the flickering screen has been associated with seizures in some susceptible people with epilepsy.

Glaucoma.
Glaucoma is not one disorder but a range of conditions in which the pressure inside the eye becomes too high. This results in damage to the optic nerve at the back of the eye which can lead to loss of vision if left untreated. Glaucoma is one of the most common causes of blindness worldwide.

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