Racecadotril in the Treatment of Acute Diarrhoea in Adults. An Individual Patient Data Based Meta-Analysis

Racecadotril is an antidiarrhoeal drug with a pure intestinal antisecretory mechanism of action. Aim: To assess racecadotril efficacy, whatever its dose, versus placebo in adult acute diarrhoea. Methods: Individual Patient Data meta-analysis following multilevel mixed models testing of the significance of the treatment effect adjusted for baseline covariates. Diarrhoea duration was the common main criteria. Results: Four randomized clinical trials (n = 669) were identified with raw data. The clinical global impression evaluated at baseline by the physician was found to be the essential predictor influencing the outcome. As compared to placebo, the 100 mg dose, the minimum effective dose, induced a 80% increase of the recovered patient proportion at anytime (Hazard Ratio = 1.8 [1.3, 2.5], p < 0.001), a 60% increase of the responder proportion i.e. recovery within 3 days (p < 0.001), a 47% reduction of abdominal pain and nausea and an overall 33% decrease of sick days (p < 0.001). In conclusion, as compared to placebo, racecadotril induced several significant effects, such as reducing the diarrhoea duration, the number of stools and associated symptoms, leading to less lost productivity.