European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

EFFICACY AND NEUROLOGICAL SIDE EFFECTS OF PRUCALOPRIDE IN ADULTS WITH CHRONIC IDIOPATHIC CONSTIPATION

Swathy Suresh*, Athira Ullas and Lijo Joseph Thomas

ABSTRACT

Prucalopride is a 5 HT-4 receptor agonist used for the treatment of laxative resistant Chronic Idiopathic Constipation (CIC). CIC is a common condition defined by infrequent stools, difficulty in passing stools without any underlying cause and it was diagnosed based on Rome IV criteria. The clinical efficacy of Prucalopride was found to be > 3SCBMs (Spontaneous complete bowel movements)/ week over 4week treatment. The most common treatment associated side effects are head ache, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and cramps. The neurological side effects including suicidal ideation, visual hallucination, loss of memory are also reported and it was evaluated using PHQ (Patient health questionnaire) Questionnaire. This is an observational cohort study conducted over a period of 6 months in the gastroenterology department of a tertiary care hospital. A total of 100 patients satisfying inclusion criteria was analysed. Case records was prospectively reviewed for evaluating the efficacy of the treatment and the neurological side effects was evaluated using PHQ questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using Python libraries including SciPy, Pandas, Numpy. The study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of prucalopride and its possibility to develop neurological side effects. The 59 % of the total population has their SCBM increased more than 3 per week over 4week treatment and no evidence of neurological side effects were identified. Prucalopride can exhibit disease modifying properties (>3SCBM/week over 4week treatment) in patients with CIC when other laxatives are failed to produce the effect. This provides an important advancement in treating the disease. In our study the evidence of neurological side effects were not reported and further studies are needed to conduct in more sample size inorder to confirm the effect.

Keywords: Prucalopride, Chronic Idiopathic Constipation (CIC), Spontaneous Complete bowel movement (SCBM), Laxatives.