Octreotide

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_Octreotide

I'm really curious about the drug Octreotide. It's that one that had huge positive results in the Greek study.

24 of the 26 patients were symptom-free after 6 months. They haven't done a double-blind study yet, but there are people with IIH who have convinced their doctors to prescribe it. I think I'll start begging next week....

I mean, they keep prescribing all sorts of drugs that were meant for other conditions, so why not this one?

Admin1

The reason why this drug isn't being prescribed as yet is because it hasn't undergone the double blind study and the figures of 24 out of 26 is a very low number, especially compared to the number of IIH sufferers. It also has some very serious side effects, so this is why at the moment until it has been explored further that Doctors aren't prescribing it at the moment. Here is information about it provided by the IH Research Foundation. Octreotide Hope this helps. Very Happy

Admin1

_Octreotide

There is a lot of excitement at the moment about Octreotide, and about it being a cure for IIH. Therefore, we want to provide you with as much correct and precise information as we can for this drug. Here are the necessary links you need to learn more.

Quote :: Why is this medication prescribed?

Octreotide is a man-made protein that is similar to a hormone in the body called somatostatin. This medicine lowers many substances in the body such as insulin and glucagon (involved in regulating blood sugar), growth hormone, and chemicals that affect digestion.

This medication is used to treat acromegaly. It is also used to reduce flushing episodes and watery diarrhea caused by cancerous tumors (carcinoid syndrome) or tumors called vasoactive intestinal peptide tumors (VIP adenomas).
Taken from [Only admins are allowed to see this link]

Octreotide

Greek Researchers Investigate Octreotide

Member

From the link you provided I read that:

"Adverse side-effects included nausea (5 patients) and diarrhea (4 patients). The symptoms were mild and did not required interruption of treatment."

Sounds promising...

On another note, every single medication prescribed for IIH was meant for other conditions. And the side effects are often worse than the IIH symptoms. So frustrating.

Admin1

The Octreotide seems to work like a weightloss pill, and so the patients who are classed as obese may show improvement, but what about the IIH sufferers whose IIH has been triggered by medication, pregnancy and hormones? Also, is the Octreotide merely putting them into remission, as it is only helping with the weightloss, has it been proved that even if weight is regained the IIH has completely gone? The one effective way of permanent remission if weight is your trigger, seems to be bariatric surgery, as you are guaranteed not to put that weight back on, but of course it is very risky, expensive and invasive, and not all of us want to go down that path.

These are all things that a proper indepth study with a larger and more varied number of IIH sufferers would show.

It would be very disheartening and possibly heartbreaking, for sufferers to have this drug and be told and led to believe it is a cure, for the IIH to re-appear further down the line, what then, more Octreotide?

I know diamox was originally prescribed for altitude sickness, and other medications have been originally for something else, but they have properly been trialled and tested on more than 26 patients. We need for this drug to be proven to be properly tested on sufferers who aren't just obese but have had IIH triggered by other means too. This would be better for IIH sufferers on the whole don't you think, and would give more credibility to the use of this drug in the treatment of IIH.

I like all IIH sufferers would love that there was a solution such as this that could completely irradicate the need for surgery, but I think we need more proof first.

Member

I wouldn't take this drug unless I was suffering from the ill effects of chemo for the following reason

Octreotide exerts pharmacologic actions similar to the natural hormone, somatostatin. It is an even more potent inhibitor of growth hormone, glucagon, and insulin than somatostatin. Like somatostatin, it also suppresses leuteinizing hormone (LH) response to GnRH, decreases splanchnic blood flow, and inhibits release of serotonin, gastrin, vasoactive intestinal peptide, secretin, motilin, and pancreatic polypeptide. Octreotide has been used to treat the symptoms associated with metastatic carcinoid tumors (flushing and diarrhea), and Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide (VIP) secreting adenomas (watery diarrhea). Octreotide substantially reduces and in many cases can normalize growth hormone and/or IGF-1 (somatomedin C) levels in patients with acromegaly.

This drug interacts with and inhibits too many hormones that are needed for the body to function normally.

Octreotide

Octreotide

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