Cardiac Arrhythmia Secondary to Loperamide Abuse and Toxicity. 2020

Mohammed Ali, and Aisha Mujahid, and Chinthaka P Bulathsinghala, and Salim Surani
Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Corpus Christi Medical Center, Corpus Christi, USA.

Loperamide is a synthetic, over-the-counter, antidiarrheal medication that is widely available and used for the treatment of diarrhea. It is a peripherally acting opioid agonist acting mostly on the μ-opioid receptors in the gut. It was thought to be a very safe medication up until very recently, as the bioavailability of the drug is very low. At significantly higher doses, it is able to cross the blood-brain barrier and mimic the effects of centrally acting opioids. However, at these significantly high doses it also leads to significant cardiotoxic consequences. Here we present a case of a 31-year-old male with significant cardiotoxicity secondary to misuse and abuse of loperamide.

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