Abstract
Pilocarpine hydrochloride exerts excellent efficacy, but it is not uncommon that treatment with this drug is forced to be discontinued because the drug often induces sweating as an adverse reaction. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the usefulness of multiple-divided low-dose treatment (reducing the one dosage level and dividing the daily dosage into four oral doses) as a means of reducing the incidence of sweating. The study involve 20 patients with Sjögren's syndrome who had developed moderate or severe sweating following one-month or longer treatment with pilocarpine hydrochloride (two 5 mg doses/day). These patients received pilocarpine hydrochloride therapy using the multiple-divided low-dose treatment (four 2.5g mg doses/day) for 4 weeks. The subjective, objective symptoms and adverse reaction after adoption of the multiple-divided low-dose treatment were compared with those before its adoption. The incidence and severity score of sweating decreased significantly after adoption of the multiple-divided low-dose method (p = 0.035, p = 0.000). The sensation of oral dryness decreased significantly after adoption of this method (p = 0.011), while the amount of saliva secreted remained unchanged.
