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The Advantages of Domperidone

The medicine Domperidone, known by the trade name of Motilum, is a drug used primarily to assist the movements of the stomach and bowels. In general, it is used for patients who have difficulty excreting waste or whose stomachs are not properly pushing foods along. In its secondary use, it is used to assist patients with Parkinson's Disease with symptoms of nausea caused by other drugs used to treat the disease. It has not been proven to work with the nausea caused by other drugs, such as chemotherapy, but it still may have off-label uses for this. It should be noted that there are some clinical trials underway to treat chemotherapy patients with this drug for nausea.

  1. Primary Uses

    • Domperidone is a peripheral dopamine antagonist. This drug spurs the muscles in the esophagus and the stomach to squeeze harder. They are given more energy to work. All sphincter muscles in the body are given an extra form of energy to manipulate food and waste. In addition, patients who have a problem swallowing can also get use out of the medication, since it provokes the muscles in the esophagus. Any patient that cannot keep food down for whatever reason can get a great degree of use out of this medication.

    Off Label Uses

    • Domperidone is used off label to assist in the production of breast milk. For this use, this medication should be the last resort, as there are other drugs on the market for this, such as Reglan or Sulpiride. However, in women who cannot take the other medications, this drug has proven results. It helps in the production of the hormone prolactin. This hormone spurs the cells of the female breast to action, producing milk. The advantages here is that it is occasionally taken by mothers of adopted babies, or mothers of babies who are in the hospital and are being fed only by expressed breast milk. In some cases, the breasts do not operate without a baby latching on, and therefore, under certain circumstances, this drug has helped produce the needed milk.

    Infants

    • This drug has also been used in the past to treat babies who spit up too often and begin to lose weight. On very small children, its action is the same as with adults, spurring the esophagus to push the food into the stomach, where it can safely be digested.

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