ArticleBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2022
Adverse reactions with levamisole vary according to its indications and misuse: A systematic pharmacovigilance study.
Article in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Safety and efficacy of 3- and 5-day regimens of levamisole in loiasis: a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical trial.Nature communications · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Safety and Efficacy of Levamisole in Loiasis: A Randomized, Placebo-controlled, Double-blind Clinical Trial.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2022Trial
- Meta-analysis of levamisole absorption and disposition across diverse species using a minimal physiologically-based pharmacokinetic model.Journal of pharmaceutical investigation · 2026Article
- Identifying Key Pathogenic Mechanisms in Recurrent Glioblastoma Through Bioinformatics Analysis.Current medicinal chemistry · 2026Article
- Onchocerciasis overview: pathogenesis, clinical spectrum, and therapeutic challenges of a neglected tropical disease.Frontiers in parasitology · 2026Review
- Nematicidal Effects and Cytotoxicity of Levamisole onAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- UnderstandingToxicology reports · 2024Review
- Safety Evaluation of a Potential Anti-Rheumatoid Arthritis Candidate, Levamisole.Journal of inflammation research · 2024Article
- The pipeline for drugs for control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases: 2. Oral anti-infective drugs and drug combinations for off-label use.Parasites & vectors · 2023Review
- From Bench to Bedside: What Do We Know about Imidazothiazole Derivatives So Far?Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Pulmonary Renal Syndrome: Perilous Presentation in Pediatrics.Indian pediatrics · 2022Article
- Adverse reactions with levamisole vary according to its indications and misuse: A systematic pharmacovigilance study.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Levamisole was initially prescribed for the treatment of intestinal worms. Because of immunomodulatory properties, levamisole has been used in inflammatory pathologies and in cancers in association with 5-fluorouracil. Levamisole is misused as a cocaine adulterant. Post-marketing reports have implicated levamisole in the occurrence of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and its use is now limited in Europe and North America. In contrast, all other parts of the World continue to use single-dose levamisole as an anthelmintic. The aim of this study was to identify ADRs reported after levamisole exposure in VigiBase, the World Health Organisation's pharmacovigilance database, and analyse their frequency compared to other drugs and according to levamisole type of use.
methodsAll levamisole-related ADRs were extracted from VigiBase. Disproportionality analyses were conducted to investigate psychiatric, hepatobiliary, renal, vascular, nervous, blood, skin, cardiac, musculoskeletal and general ADRs associated with levamisole and other drugs exposure. In secondary analyses, we compared the frequency of ADRs between levamisole and mebendazole and between levamisole type of use.
resultsAmong the 1763 levamisole-related ADRs identified, psychiatric disorders (reporting odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals: 1.4 [1.2-2.6]), hepatobiliary disorders (2.4 [1.9-4.3]), vasculitis (6.5 [4.1-10.6]), encephalopathy (22.5 [17.4-39.9]), neuropathy (4.3 [2.9-7.1]), haematological disorders, mild rashes and musculoskeletal disorders were more frequently reported with levamisole than with other drug. The majority of levamisole-related ADRs occurred when the drug was administrated for a non-anti-infectious indication.
conclusionThe great majority of the levamisole-related ADRs concerned its immunomodulatory indication and multiple-dose regimen. Our results suggest that single-dose treatments for anthelmintic action have a good safety profile.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.