Health officials seek packaging fix for anti-diarrhea drug abuse

Washington DC — U.S. health regulators on Tuesday asked makers of popular anti-diarrhea drugs to sell their medications in smaller amounts to make them harder to abuse.

The request comes amid a spike in overdoses from large doses of the over-the-counter drugs, which contain a small amount of an opioid.

The Food and Drug Administration wants manufacturers to package their medications in smaller quantities, such as eight tablets per package.

Currently, some generic versions are sold in boxes of up to 200 tablets.

The FDA said it also plans to ask online retailers to make it harder to order bulk amounts of the drugs.

The key ingredient in anti-diarrhea medications like Imodium is part of the opioid family, an addictive drug class that includes morphine and oxycodone.

At low doses, the medicine, known generically as loperamide, helps control diarrhea.

But recent statistics show a rise in abuse of the drug, including massive doses that can cause heart problems and death.

In some reported cases, people attempted to wean themselves off opioids by substituting the anti-diarrhea drugs.