Periactin, a medication prescribed for allergies, will now be available on prescription to avoid its misuse to “grow the buttocks”

This antihistamine is increasingly being misused “for weight gain for aesthetic purposes”, warns the ANSM.

From July 10, Periactin, a medication prescribed for allergies, will only be available on prescription, the Medicines Safety Agency, ANSM, announced Thursday, June 27, in a press release sent to franceinfo. This antihistamine is increasingly misused “for weight gain for aesthetic purposes”in particular to make “grow your buttocksalerts the ANSM.

“Despite the information measures put in place since 2022, these misuses persist, as well as the risks associated with them. The change in the conditions of prescription and delivery aims to limit this misuse”explains the Medicines Safety Agency.

It was in particular the widely followed influencer Poupette Kenza who launched this fashion of taking a medication, Periactin, to gain weight, particularly the buttocks. It has orexigenic properties, in short, it increases the appetite. Immediate effect on TikTok. “These are at least three kilos gained for you, in less than a month”, says the influencer. And “The goal is to draw a defined waistline to create the illusion of an hourglass figure similar to that of the famous Kim Kardashian”.

A misuse confirmed by Doctor Isabelle Yodjian, medical director of the Medicines Safety Agency. “This molecule is mainly used in young women who wish to have a slightly larger volume of the buttocks and breasts, this volume is generated by an increase in appetite generated by the molecule, but this weight gain is not not always located in the desired places”she warns.

This medication is an antihistamine, used to treat conjunctivitis or rhinitis caused by allergies. And like any medication, it can cause side effects: “We have had reports of serious adverse effects, convulsions, agitation, or drowsiness, urinary retention, tachycardia, constipation, dryness of the mucous membranes. These effects are not trivial”continues the medical director of the Medicines Safety Agency.

Other influencers on TikTok want to discourage this type of practice which is dangerous for health. “Me, girls, I took 5/6 a day, I was addicted to this medication, I found myself too thin and I absolutely wanted to gain weight, in the space of a month I gained almost ten kilos”relates this influencer on TikTok, “but this drug destroys your life, it will make you sleep all the time, it will knock you out. You will have dizziness and nausea, it is a drug that is extremely bad for the liver, it destroys it”. Recently, the ANSM had already had to crack down to limit the diversion of antidiabetic drugs used to lose weight.