New information now will tell doctors that if patients stop taking the drug, then begin taking it again, they need to begin at the lowest dose first. Restarting therapy at the lower dose helps to reduce the risk of nausea, severe vomiting, and rupturing the esophagus, or the tube that carries food to the stomach.
More information follows.
This could be particularly important if the patient is experiencing nausea or vomiting while taking this medicine. Novartis has noted these are common side effects of the drug. Once patients begin Exelon at the low dose, a doctor then gradually increases it to find the level that a patient can tolerate, while getting the best results. This progressive prescribing is called titration. In clinical studies of this drug, researchers found about half of the patients who took it felt nauseated.