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AMA Department of Drugs

JAMA. 1970;211(1):114.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In this issue of THE JOURNAL (pp 83 and 86), two reports describe a total of six patients in whom hepatitis and jaundice developed after ingesting laxatives containing oxyphenisatin acetate. In these reports, a causal relationship to the drug appears certain. The fairly prolonged period of ingestion apparently necessary to produce the illness could tend to obscure the etiology of similar cases.

Oxyphenisatin acetate is a component of many laxative mixtures, some of them virtual polypharmacons, sold without prescription to laymen. Enough harm is done by over-the-counter laxatives without adding liver disease to the spectrum of damage. It would seem wise that these drugs containing oxyphenisatin acetate be removed from the market.

Some argument might be made that certain of these agents could remain available for prescription sale with reasonable safety, but such a notion would have little merit. In prescribing a drug such as a laxative, no physician, once . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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