Stemetil (Prochlorperazine) Improves My Tinnitus

Hi,

By accident, I discovered that taking Stemetil 5 mg will significantly lower the amount of head ringing I have in my head but only the next day. My tinnitus has 2 modes, ringing in just my right ear, or my head buzzes like a dimmer switch. The latter mode is extremely difficult to live with and am trying everything I can to find a fix. I guess there must be a way out of this if I'm prepared to put in the effort.

I note that the mechanism of action for Stemetil is to block dopamine uptake and it is usually prescribed for nausea/motion sickness etc.

Does anyone on this forum have any experience with taking Stemetil? Any theories why I see little benefit until the next day? I've also been taking a real low dose i.e. 5-10 mg per day, the max I believe is 30 mg per day.

I am going to take a month-long trial under my doctor's supervision, but let's face it people on this forum tend to know more than the doctors, so thought I'd ask the experts.

/Jeff.

 

So you take the pill at night and it kicks in the next day? Does it only work for one day? How often does your tinnitus go through the two modes?

 

Thanks for sharing, Jeff. I haven't heard of this, but I have an appointment coming up with my doctor, and I'll definitely ask him about his thoughts on it. He has a degree in biochemistry, so it should at least make for good discussion.

I look forward to hearing about how your longer trial of Stemetil goes.

Cheers

 

I've done 4 trials where I take the tablet at about 2 pm and it kicks in the next day, sometimes about 24 hours later. It can also give me up to 1.5 days benefit so quite a long tail.

My tinnitus is about 70% the head ringing (ear also rings) and 30% just the ear.

 

It's a d2 dopamine agonist.

Dopamine receptor target drugs have shown some efficiency in the treatment of some people's tinnitus but I am not aware of any large-sample size blinded study that's been able to demonstrate any kind of consistent effect.

So, this gets into the realm of stuff which might help some small subset of people, but the only way to find out is to try, and if it works for you you get to be a medical mystery that none of your doctors really understand.

 

I wonder if there's any connection to prolactin here.

 

Jeff, please keep us updated with your trials of Stemetil. I would like to try it myself.

It would be interesting to get a blood panel done just before you take the Stemetil and again a day later when you are seeing the benefit, then compare the two blood panels.

 

This is why I take Pramipexole - it's much worse without it.

 

I think I asked you already, but what kind of tinnitus do you have (ringing, buzzing, hiss...)? And by how much does it improve with Pramipexole?

 

I have multiple noises that rotate, but predominantly hissing and ringing - I would say the pramipexole knocks it down from an 8-9/10 to a 6-8/10 on average.

 

Hi,

I thought I would write a reply for those that raised interest in my original post. I got a range of tablets from the doctor 1) Loratadine (anti-histamine), 2) Stemetil (Prochlorperazine), 3) Kwells travel sickness tablets (Hyoscine Hydrobromide)

I was planning on taking each for a week to see what would happen.

1) Anti-histamine
Immediately caused my tinnitus to get louder. I stuck with it for few days and it didn't help so I stopped, after stopping my tinnitus went back to base levels.

2) Hyoscine Hydrobromide
Caused me to be very sleepy and I became very weak. Around this time I developed balance issues, and a crushing headache. Maybe complete coincidence.

3) Prochlorperazine
Caused me to feel great, tinnitus reduced the next day after taking. However, it brought back my depression which I suffered really badly at the start of the year, so I stopped. I simply cannot go back to that period as I would constantly think about how to kill myself.

On looking more into Prochlorperazine I realized how dangerous it is to take this tablet long-term. This tablet is typically used for acute episodes of nausea and vertigo etc. If you take this long term (years) then you can develop Parkinsonism syndrome which is horrific.

I wanted to ensure I updated the post just in case anyone didn't have all the info with which to make their decisions. Everyone is free to do what they want, but they need all the facts.

Also, as I've recently developed tension like headaches, vertigo-like symptoms (like I'd got off a boat) and some nausea, I've been looking for some pharmacology to help with that. Stemetil would definitely help here but not willing to take it for the reasons I mentioned earlier. I wonder if that caused my tension-like problems, also not sure if this could have caused my tinnitus in the first place (always thought that).

Having felt like this for 3 weeks now, in desperation I decided to take Robaxin (Methocarbamol) which is a muscle relaxant I was given a few years back for a back issue. I took 5 tablets, each one 750 mg, in a single day (below the max dose) and my tension headache, blocked and painful ears were massively reduced. Balance at least 70% better. Interestingly the next day, my tinnitus had completely gone away, for at least 1/2 a day - WTF! Did I discover my tinnitus is related to muscle tension or a muscle issue in my neck/back? I've also had a somatic component to my tinnitus e.g., opening my mouth makes my tinnitus louder, turning the head one way causes the tinnitus to start in the opposite ear, turning the other way, the tinnitus volume increases by 500% and so on.

Just thought I'd share what I'd learnt just in case it helps someone. I will definitely be trying Robaxin again, especially if my tinnitus gets really bad.

 

It is dopamine antagonist, like antipsychotics.

 

Quite right, thanks for the correction.

 

Just took Prochlorperazine 5 mg. I have dizziness so decided to bite the bullet and take one from an old prescription. An hour later my tinnitus has dropped minimally ~10-15%.

I will report back tomorrow on any change or not.

 

Well I woke up and it was as quiet as it has been in the morning after a 5 mg pill yesterday afternoon. Could be a coincidence so far. Mood is ok though and seems like it had an anti-anxiety effect, completely different to the benzo anti-anxiety but drugged feeling. Feeling calm.

 

Hi @Nick47 -- Just to mention, Prochlorperazine is an anticholinergic drug, the same class of drug that gave me screeching tinnitus and may have given me a form of chronic akathisia. -- Take care!

Nervous system
Prochlorperazine can cause akathisia. Of 100 patients with severe headache or nausea who received prochlorperazine 10 mg intravenously, 44 developed akathisia within 1 hour; none of the 40 patients who received other medications, and who served as controls, developed akathisia.​

 

@Lane, no worries. It was actually prescribed a while back when I had labyrinthitis. I take a lower dose, 5 mg yesterday and 2.5 mg today.

What drug did you take?

 

Just an update. I took 5 mg of Prochlorperazine again yesterday and today my tinnitus has been 3-5/10 with much less reactivity. Still could be a coincidence and I do not want to take it regularly.

 

Last update from me on this. I took Prochlorperazine for the 3rd time (5 mg) and it reduced anxiety, made me a bit depressed, and I woke up the next day with lower tinnitus volume and reactivity. This happened too often to be a coincidence. No more reports from me on this in the future.

It is commonly prescribed in the UK for nausea and dizziness.

 

Did your tinnitus remain low once you stopped taking it?

 

@AST, it remained low only the next day. It seems dopamine modulating medications can affect tinnitus, as other people have reported getting some effect from them too. I have a prescription for other dopamine modulators, although I'm having a tough time obtaining them. If taken regularly, you need to speak to a doctor as long-term use could cause side effects.