# Constipation Side Effect?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-side-effect/135332>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 5, 2002, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-side-effect/135332 "2002-11-05T07:21:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Duderdude2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@Duderdude2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duderdude2)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2002, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-side-effect/135332/1 "2002-11-05T07:21:55Z")

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Why does constipation seem to be a side effect to virtually every oral medical treatment? What exactly are they doing that cause constipation?

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**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2002, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-side-effect/135332/2 "2002-11-05T13:22:50Z")

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Pain relievers can put the body into spasm to relieve the pain IIRC from some medication I took a while back.

Any proper doctors around to answer?

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**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2002, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-side-effect/135332/3 "2002-11-05T15:03:06Z")

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Any medication which slows gastro-intestinal motility can cause constipation. The big culprits tend to be the narcotic pain-killers, as they slow down motility big-time. Other neurotransmitter mediators, such as antidepressants do the same thing.

Some drugs can cause big-time diarrhea. Any antibiotic falls into this category.

Truly, a lot of medications are more bowel-neutral. Don’t judge a medicine by its profile in the PDR. Side-effects reported there include any symptom at all that an individual had on the medicine under study.

Did you have a specific drug in mind?

QtM, MD