Are There Any Medications for Hiccups?

Are There Any Medications for Hiccups?

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QUESTION: My hiccups sometimes go on for days. Are there any medications
that can help me?
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ANSWER: I presume that you've tried physical approaches, such as swallowing
granulated sugar or bitters, deep breathing or rebreathing in a paper bag, for
example. Sometimes a doctor will find that inserting a nasogastric tube into
your esophagus is enough to "break" the hiccup reflex.
If these conservative maneuvers haven't produced results, drug therapy
may be the next course of action required. Two relatively mild ones are
chloropromazine (brand name Thorazine) and metoclopramide (Reglan). If these
don't stop your hiccups, your doctor will want to investigate some rather more
serious causes of hiccups, such as kidney trouble, lung infections, tumors or
subdiaphragmatic process.
Should your tests turn out normal, then your doctor will move on to the
anticonvulsant drugs, such as carbamazepine (Tegretol) or phenytoin
(Dilantin). A few patients respond to a stronger anticonvulsant drug called
valproic acid (Depakene), a heart drug called nifedipine (Procardia), an
antipsychotic called haloperidol (Haldol), or tranquilizers in the
benzodiazepine group like diazepam (Valium). All of these medications can
only be obtained with prescriptions, and should only be taken under medical
supervision. As the long list of medications indicates, hiccups (or
hiccoughs) may be difficult to treat successfully.
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