The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7257 p47
12 July 2003

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  Modernisation
  English testing
  Drug tariff
  Zinamide
  Omeprazole
  Cardiac disease
  Penicillin
  CPD
  Boots pharmacists
  Onlooker

Letters to the Editor

Omeprazole

I am not in favour of omeprazole's reclassification

From Mr P. Shelley, MRPharmS

I am not in favour of the reclassification of omeprazole (PJ, 24 May, p709).

Eleven years ago my wife started getting periods of vomiting and visited our general practitioner. He could not immediately recognise anything specific and referred her for an endoscopy. This showed a large gastric ulcer and the initial biopsy indicated that it was benign.

The consultant prescribed a double dose of omeprazole and we went on a trip abroad during which my wife felt quite well. When we returned my wife had another endoscopy and it showed no improvement. This time the biopsy was inconclusive and she was referred to a surgeon who performed a sub-total gastrectomy. The diagnosis was a high grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

With intensive chemotherapy and a stem-cell bone marrow procedure, my wife made a good recovery. The point is, of course, that had she been able to buy omeprazole over the counter, the symptoms may have been masked until it was too late.

Peter Shelley
Newport, Gwent

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