Doctors Stumble Upon Drug Cure For Hiccups
An accidental discovery by Israeli doctors has revealed another possible cure for extreme, persistent hiccups.
Doctors at Tel Aviv University reported that the drug amantadine, which is used to alleviate symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, appears to be an effective hiccup stopper.
In a recent letter in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers described the case of a 75-year-old woman who had incurable hiccups for 36 years.
“The patient’s hiccup bouts were almost continuous, with rare remissions lasting a maximum of six to eight weeks,” they wrote.
Even during times of remission, the woman still had sporadic hiccups. She was hospitalized several times and underwent many tests, but all therapies failed.
Then in September, 1985, the woman was diagnosed as having Parkinson’s disease. When she began taking amantadine, her hiccups stopped. When the drug treatment was interrupted twice, the hiccups reappeared.
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