Precautions

Drug information provided by: Merative, Micromedex®

It is very important that your doctor check your progress at regular visits to make sure that this medicine is working properly and to check for unwanted effects.

Diarrhea usually stops 2 days after treatment with this medicine. If your symptoms do not improve or if they get worse within 10 days of treatment, check with your doctor.

This medicine may cause serious stomach or bowel problems (eg, toxic megacolon). This is more likely if you also have ulcerative colitis. Check with your doctor right away if you have bloating, constipation, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, or stomach pain.

Check with your doctor if you have dizziness, fast, shallow breathing, a fast, weak heartbeat, headache, muscle cramps, pale, clammy skin, thirst, extremely high fever or body temperature, decrease in urine volume, decrease in frequency of urination, difficulty in passing urine, painful urination, dry skin and mouth. This may be signs of condition called atropinism.

Check with your doctor before using this medicine with alcohol or other medicines that affect the central nervous system (CNS). The use of alcohol or other medicines that affect the CNS with diphenoxylate and atropine combination may worsen the side effects of this medicine, such as dizziness, poor concentration, drowsiness, unusual dreams, and trouble with sleeping. Some examples of medicines that affect the CNS are antihistamines or medicine for allergies or colds, sedatives, tranquilizers, or sleeping medicines, medicine for depression, medicine for anxiety, prescription pain medicine or narcotics, medicine for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, medicine for seizures or barbiturates, muscle relaxants, or anesthetics, including some dental anesthetics.

If you think you or anyone else may have taken an overdose of this medicine, get emergency help at once. Taking an overdose of this medicine may lead to unconsciousness and possibly death. Signs or symptoms of overdose include severe drowsiness, shortness of breath or troubled breathing, fast heartbeat, and unusual warmth, dryness, and flushing of the skin.

This medicine may make you dizzy or drowsy. Do not drive or do anything else that could be dangerous until you know how this medicine affects you.

Do not take other medicines unless they have been discussed with your doctor. This includes prescription or nonprescription (over-the-counter [OTC]) medicines and herbal or vitamin supplements.

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Portions of this document last updated: May 01, 2024

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