If you are not sure how much loperamide to take, how often to take it, or whether a medicine you are taking interacts with loperamide, ask a pharmacist or your health care professional.
Stop taking loperamide and contact your health care professional if your diarrhea lasts more than 2 days, your symptoms get worse, or you get abdominal swelling or bulging. Do not give loperamide to a child younger than 2 years unless directed by a health care professional.
Additional Information for Health Care Professionals. Higher than recommended doses of loperamide can cause serious cardiac events, including QT interval prolongation, Torsades de Pointes, other ventricular arrhythmias, cardiac arrest, syncope, and death. Consider loperamide as a possible cause of these unexplained cardiac events. If loperamide-induced cardiotoxicity is suspected, promptly discontinue loperamide and start therapy to manage and prevent cardiac arrhythmias and severe outcomes.
Measure blood levels of loperamide. Standard drug screens for opioids do not include an assay for loperamide; such testing for opioids will yield negative results even in the presence of loperamide. If you need to measure blood levels of loperamide, specifically request the test.
Consider electrical pacing or cardioversion for loperamide-associated Torsades de Pointes that persists despite pharmacotherapy. In many reported cases, antiarrhythmic medications were ineffective, and electrical pacing or cardioversion were required to control the arrhythmias.
In the majority of severe cases, individuals intentionally abused loperamide by taking massive doses to achieve a feeling of euphoria or prevent opioid withdrawal.
Some patients also misused loperamide by taking higher than recommended doses to treat diarrhea. In the most severe cases, individuals self-treated with doses ranging from 70 mg to mg daily, which is 4 to times the recommended dose. In several cases, individuals used concomitant drugs to increase gastrointestinal absorption, decrease loperamide metabolism, and increase blood brain barrier penetration.
These drugs included CYP3A4 inhibitors e. Multiple drugs that act on different metabolic or transporter pathways may act synergistically to increase loperamide concentrations. Loperamide is an opioid that has relatively low gastrointestinal absorption and poor blood-brain barrier penetration.
At approved does, loperamide has a relatively long half-life of 9 to 13 hours. At doses of 16 mg and higher, the half-life has been found to be as high as 41 hours. Prescribe loperamide with caution in patients who are predisposed to QT interval prolongation, Torsades de Pointes, and other serious arrhythmias or who are on drugs that inhibit loperamide metabolism or transport i.
Concomitant drugs may act synergistically to increase loperamide concentrations by blocking more than one pathway of loperamide elimination. Counsel patients about the cardiac risks of loperamide and tell them not to use more than the recommended dose. Refer patients with opioid use disorders for treatment. There are FDA-approved drugs to reduce opioid withdrawal symptoms. Loperamide is not recommended for use in children under 2 years. Data Summary. Sheyman J, Crake R.
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They'll be able to advise you about the benefits and possible harms of taking it. This will depend on how many weeks pregnant you are and why you need to take it. It is OK to take loperamide for a couple of days while you're breastfeeding. Hardly any loperamide passes into breast milk, and so it will not affect your baby. For more information about how taking this medicine can affect you and your baby, read this leaflet about loperamide on the Best Use of Medicines in Pregnancy BUMPs website.
Speak to your doctor if your diarrhoea is very severe and you take metformin for diabetes, or medicines for high blood pressure or heart failure. Your doctor may tell you to stop taking these medicines for a few days until your diarrhoea is better.
There's very little information about taking herbal remedies and supplements with loperamide. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you're taking any other medicines, including herbal medicines, vitamins or supplements. Loperamide is an anti-motility medicine. This means that it slows down food as it goes through your gut.
Your body can then draw in more water from your intestines, so that your poos get firmer and you poo less often. Loperamide usually starts to work within 1 hour to make your diarrhoea better. You may need to take it for longer if your diarrhoea is because of a bowel condition such as Crohn's disease , ulcerative colitis or short bowel syndrome. If you've bought loperamide from a shop or pharmacy, do not take it for more than 48 hours without talking to a doctor.
Although diarrhoea is usually nothing to worry about, it can sometimes lead to dehydration. This can be serious if you do not get the correct treatment. Diarrhoea can also sometimes be a warning sign of another problem.
For this reason, it's important to see a doctor to find out the cause of your diarrhoea if it continues beyond 7 days. If you've bought loperamide for short-term diarrhoea, do not take it for longer than 48 hours without talking to a doctor. Loperamide may be used for long-lasting diarrhoea and by people who have a colostomy stoma if their doctor prescribes it. Do not take loperamide to prevent diarrhoea, unless your doctor tells you to.
It's not been officially approved and tested for preventing diarrhoea. It's best not to drink alcohol while you're taking loperamide.
Alcohol makes you more likely to have side effects such as feeling sleepy or dizzy and having difficulty concentrating. Apart from avoiding alcohol, you can eat and drink normally while you're taking loperamide. However, if you have diarrhoea it's best to avoid fatty or spicy food.
Loperamide can make you feel dizzy, tired or sleepy. You might also feel less alert, feel faint or pass out. If this happens to you do not drive, cycle or use machinery or tools until the effect has worn off. Yes, you can take loperamide at the same time as everyday painkillers like paracetamol and ibuprofen. There is another medicine for diarrhoea called co-phenotrope. This works in a similar way to loperamide to slow down your gut. You do not usually need an antibiotic for diarrhoea.
However, occasionally your doctor will prescribe an antibiotic if you have severe diarrhoea caused by a specific kind of bacteria.
Speak to a pharmacist if you have signs of dehydration , such as peeing less than usual or having dark, strong-smelling pee. Your pharmacist can recommend oral rehydration sachets.
These are powders that you mix with water and then drink. If you've been diagnosed with a particular health problem that's causing your diarrhoea, treating the problem may help improve your symptoms. For example, you can help relieve IBS with changes to your diet and medicines.
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