Amitiza
#261938 - 05/05/06 11:16 PM
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Today my Gastroenterologist prescribed Amitiza which is a new drug that treats constipation. However I have diarrhea prone IBS. He claims that this treatment also works to stabilize the contractions in the colon and would also be effective for treating diarrhea as well. I'm a little confused since if that is the case, then why don't they indicate that this drug works for both types of IBS ?
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I'd wonder the same thing. And being a D, I'd never take something made to treat C. I'd get a second opinion from another doctor before taking anything.
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According to my doctor, some people who think they have IBS D don't. What happens is if you're very C for a long time, your body builds up a bunch of water trying to flush out your insides. When it finally succeeds you have d for awhile as it gets rid of all that extra water. So in some cases, if you treat the C, the D will naturally go away. Does that make sense?
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Thanks for the reply. It does make sense. Since my last post I've done some research. Most chronic constipation is attributed to IBS, and most people who have IBS also get diarrhea. I've was diagnose with IBS over 20 years ago and I have used several treatments but there was no perfect cure. These new drugs use beta blockers to regulate the colon so it can function normaly. When they are tested in trials they are only aimed at those who have chronic constipation for the purpose of FDA approval, when in fact if they were to also test them on subjects who have IBS prone Diarrhea they would find positive results. The problem is that it would take longer for these drugs to become available if they had to do clinical trials for both. I would suggest that anyone who has either form of IBS contact their doctor about these new drugs and see if they would be helpful in their treatment. My doctor has tried Amitiza and even Zelnorm on patients with diarrhea and so far has gotten good results from many of his patients. Although Amitiza seems to work better.
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Re: Amitiza
#261981 - 05/06/06 09:37 AM
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Sand
Reged: 12/13/04
Posts: 4490
Loc: West Orange, NJ (IBS-D)
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From: http://www.amitiza.com/
Quote:
AMITIZA should not be administered to patients that have severe diarrhea. Patients should be aware of the possible occurrence of diarrhea during treatment. If the diarrhea becomes severe, patients should consult their health professional.
The rest of this page is interesting also. It describes Amitiza as "increasing intestinal fluid secretion" which is in keeping with the discussion of Amitiza on the Diet Board:
Diet Board Post
It sounds like you're saying Amitiza is a beta blocker. If so, could you post where you found that? From what I'm seeing, Amitiza is a calcium channel activator. I'm in way over my head here - PoliSci major by education, applications programmer by trade - but I think I'm finding that calcium channel blockers act sort of like beta blockers, so I would think a calcium channel activator would act in an opposite fashion. Thanks.
You might also do some Searches on Zelnorm. There have been some earlier discussions on whether Zelnorm is safe for people with IBS-D and on the differences between chronic idiopathic constipation and IBS.
It is possible you have IBS-C resolved by diarhhea or even that you are IBS-A. There is, however, just plain IBS-D - those of us who just have diarhhea.
I'm one of those IBS-Ds and I would avoid a drug for constipation, especially one that produces diarrhea in 13% of people with constipation. If Amitiza was an anti-spasmodic (a drug that smoothes out bowel function), I'd think it would have been tested on people with both constipation and diarhhea. It really shouldn't take any longer for the drug to come to market with dual testing, since the trials for people with diarhhea could run concurrently with those for people with constipation. And without testing, there is no way to be sure that if the drug was given to people with diarhhea the results would be positive.
Despite my extensive reservations, if you decide to go ahead with this, I truly do hope it helps. Please let us know.
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Thanks for all the input.
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Thanks again for your input. I will check back with my doctor in about 30 days and see what kind of results he's had with IBS A and D patients. I will post them at that time.
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