Ischemic colitus and Imodium?

I don't know the answer to this for sure, but Imodium has been on the market for many years, first as a prescription-only drug and then in the over the counter version we're all familiar with. I think there would have been some publicity by now if it were associated with ischemic colitis. For what it's worth, that is not listed as a side effect in "The Nurses' Drug Handbook," But there is this caution under "Patient Teaching:" Advise patients with acute colitis to stop drug immediately if abdominal distention or other symptoms develop and notify doctor." and "tell patient to report nausea, abdominal pain or abdominal discomfort." There is also a notation that if Imodium is used for chronic diarrhea, it should be stopped if there is no improvement after taking 16 mg per day for 10 days.In my pre-Lotronex days (soon to be resumed), I used to get relief on 6 - 8 mg a day.

There are different mechanisms that drugs can use to slow the colon. Immodium and Lomotil work by a completely different mechanism than Lotronex, so it wouldn't be suprising if the side effects profiles were different. Immodium and Lomotil work on opioid receptors in the gut. So they act more like Morphine in how the stop diarrhea. In some people with Inflamatory Bowel Diseases one of the only things that will slow the gut down is Morphine. Lotronex works by blocking a serotonin receptor in the gut. Now in people with Ulcerative Colitis who are already at risk for toxic megacolon (sounds like a rock group not a disease)Immodium seems to up the risk but AFAIK only in that already at risk population.Given the widespread usage of Immodium and the numbers of people who use it chronicaly at high dosea, If it did cause those sorts of problems it would have been noted by now.K.