Malnutrition and poor weight gain are due to poverty. What is needed is food and not Durabolin, which may produce precocious puberty. Cyproheptadine is an antihistamine used in the treatment of allergies and migraines. In Pakistan , the company markets Periactin as an appetite stimulant . According to the British National Formulary, it is not recommended as an appetite stimulant.
Weight gain is mentioned as a possible side-effect.
Sandoz markets another antihistamine, pizotifen, as Sanomigran in the United Kingdom for the prevention of migraines . In Pakistan, it markets pizotifen as Mosgor and lists the indications as lack of appetite and marked lack of weight gain of a mental or nervous origin. This drug is not marketed in advanced industrialized countries for any of these indications Drug Promotion 1.