Basically a simple antihistamine, the use of Periactin is increasingly misused, particularly to have the same silhouette as Kim Kardashian. This Thursday, the Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) announced that from July 10, the drug will be delivered by prescription only. Periactin is used “for weight gain for aesthetic purposes“, especially to make the buttocks biggeralerts the ANSM.
“Despite the information measures put in place since 2022, these misuses persist, as do the risks associated with them. The change in the conditions of prescription and delivery aims to limit this misuse“, explains the Medicines Safety Agency.
“At least three kilos gained for you, in less than a month”
It is the widely followed influencer Poupette Kenza in particular who launched this fashiontake a medication, Periactin, to gain weight and in particular to enlarge the buttocks. It has orexigenic properties, in short, it increases appetite.. Immediate effect on TikTok. “That’s a minimum of three kilos gained for you, in less than a month“, says the influencer. And “the goal is to draw a marked waist to create the illusion of an hourglass silhouette 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 always located in the desired places“, she warns.
Not trivial side effects
Periactin 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 reactions, 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 per 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 is destroying your life, it will make you sleep all the time, it will knock you out. You will feel dizzy and nauseous, it is a medicine that is extremely bad for the liver, it destroys it.“.
Recently, the ANSM had already had to crack down to limit diversion of antidiabetics used to lose weight.
