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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a safety announcement in July 2010, which stated that quinine should not be used to treat leg cramps. To examine adverse outcomes associated with quinine use, U.K. researchers identified about 44,000 patients with new quinine prescriptions for leg cramps or restless legs syndrome and matched them with 130,000 patients with the same symptoms but no quinine exposure. Median age of participants was 70; mean quinine intake among exposed patients was 203 mg daily.
During 6 years of follow-up, more than 38,000 deaths occurred, at a rate of 4.2 deaths per 100 person-years in the quinine group and 3.2 deaths per 100 person-years in the unexposed group. In analyses adjusted for multiple comorbidities and m…