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Taking anti-vomiting medication could more than triple the risk of a stroke, a study suggests.
The drugs, called antidopaminergic antiemetics, are often prescribed on the NHS to treat nausea due to conditions such as migraines or illnesses resulting from cancer treatments.
But a study of more than 30,000 people prescribed three types of the drugs suggested users could have between 2.5 and 3.5 times increased risk of ischemic stroke.
Ischemic strokes are the most common type and occur when a blood clot blocks the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain.
The study's authors, from the University of Bordeaux, suggested that the drugs could affect blood flow in the brain, thereby increasing the risk of stroke.
Antidopaminergic antiemetics work by preventing the pleasure chemical dopamine, which is also involved in the feeling of nausea, from being activated in the brain.
French researchers have found that people taking antidopaminergic antiemetics prescribed to combat nausea are associated with a threefold increased risk of stroke (stock image)
Previous studies had found a link between antipsychotic medications that work similarly and the risk of stroke, so researchers wanted to investigate whether anti-nausea medications were the same.
They examined three types of drugs – domperidone, metopimazine and metoclopramide.
Researchers analyzed data from the French health system and found 2,612 patients who had suffered their first ischemic stroke between 2012 and 2016 and who had been prescribed one of three anti-nausea medications within 70 days of their stroke.
They then matched these patients to a healthy group of nearly 22,000 patients who had not suffered a stroke but had taken medication during the same period.
When patients took the antidopaminergic antiemetics, researchers also noted how long before a stroke people took one of the medications.
Publication of their results in the BMJ Researchers found that the majority of stroke patients suffered their stroke within 14 days of taking the medication.
This increased risk of stroke was seen with all three drugs, but was highest with metopimazine, with a 3.6-fold higher risk, and metoclopramide, with a 3.5-fold higher risk.
The last of the three anti-nausea drugs, domperidone, had the least excess risk, at 2.5 times the risk.
The study's lead author, Anne Bénard-Laribière, a pharmacologist at the University of Bordeaux, said: "The higher risk found for drugs that cross the blood-brain barrier suggests a possible central effect, possibly through an effect on cerebral blood flow."
However, she added that further research is needed to determine the exact reason for the increased risk of stroke.
The study was limited by the fact that the health database did not record the dosage of anti-nausea medications prescribed to patients, meaning this aspect could influence the observed risk of stroke.
More than 100,000 strokes occur in the UK every year, approximately every five minutes. Around 35,000 Brits die from strokes every year.
In the United States, about 795,000 people have a stroke each year and about 140,000 of them die - about one in 20 deaths are caused by a stroke. I
Ischemic stroke accounts for 80 percent of strokes, the rest are hemorrhagic.
Hemorrhagic strokes occur when a blood vessel bursts, flooding one part of the brain with too much blood while other areas do not receive enough blood.