Yasmina Kattou / Photo credit: Thibaut Durand / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP
Some medications are useless or even harmful to your health. This is what the medical journal “Prescrire” reveals, which published a blacklist of 105 products, including 88 marketed in France, which could cause serious side effects on health. We find Maxilase, Toplexil, Actifed and Dolirhume.
They are often part of our medicine cabinets, but you have to be careful. 105 drugs, including 88 marketed in France, appear in the 2024 black list of the medical journal Prescribe. The risk-benefit balance turns out to be unfavourable. Some medications would be useless or even dangerous.
The list points to cough syrups like Maxilase or Toplexil. At best they are ineffective, at worst they can cause serious side effects. “The data show that they have no clinical effectiveness beyond that of a placebo, but that on the other hand they expose us to certain risks such as allergic reactions and serious skin reactions, sometimes fatal,” explains Séverine Carré-Petraud, editorial director of the magazine Prescribe. “Toplexil, for example, exposes you to neurological disorders.”
Lead in Smecta
Another medication to remove from your medicine cabinet: Smecta used for intestinal disorders contains lead. “Lead has toxic, neurological, hematological, renal and cardiovascular effects and also effects on reproduction,” continues Séverine Carré-Petraud.
The review also warns about cold medications like Actifed or Dolirhume which expose you to strokes or heart attacks. The drug safety agency also advises the French to no longer consume these products.