Take care: Botox drugs should come with a health warning
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MEDICINES BOARD: Toxin warning
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Tuesday Jan 15 2008
THE Irish Medicines Board (IMB) have called for "extreme caution" when using a toxin found in botox.
The IMB made the call in relation to using products which contain the botulinum toxin in its latest drug safety newsletter.
The product information for Botox, Dysport and Neurobloc, has been updated recently by the IMB to warn against serious adverse effects related to the distant spread of the toxin.
The warning comes despite the IMB saying such incidences are very rare.
OUTCOME
But while these incidences only happen occasionally, some cases are fatal.
However, the use of drug is acceptable in medically approved situations.
Patients can be assured that the directive is mostly directed at those situations where large amounts of this pharmaceutical is being used neurologically, said Dr Patrick Treacy, Medical Director of the Ailesbury Clinic in Dublin.
“This is especially in the neck area and it is quite rare to see any serious problems in the smaller doses normally used in cosmetic medicine,” Dr Treacy explained.
Ireland has no proper regulation, he added.
“Botox/Vistabel has a cosmetic licence in 70 countries, including the US FDA and European approval (including France and Switzerland), as well as a cosmetic licence in the Britain. This almost leaves Ireland standing alone with no licence for this use,” he said.
