Skip to main content
PlainMeds

What the label lists and what reports show

Magnesium sulfate side effects

Magnesium sulfate's FDA label lists its adverse reactions in its own words. FAERS holds 13,130 reports naming it through July 30, 2026; the reaction reported most often, leaving out the conditions it is used for, product-use terms and outcomes, is nausea (849 reports).

  • Generic listed

Check it at the source: the magnesium sulfate FDA label on DailyMed (effective August 24, 2026, Hospira, Inc.); the FDA FAERS public dashboard.

What does the label list?

From the label: adverse reactions

The adverse effects of parenterally administered magnesium usually are the result of magnesium intoxication. These include flushing, sweating, hypotension, depressed reflexes, flaccid paralysis, hypothermia, circulatory collapse, cardiac and central nervous system depression proceeding to respiratory paralysis. Hypocalcemia with signs of tetany secondary to magnesium sulfate therapy for eclampsia has been reported.

Source: FDA drug label, Hospira, Inc., effective August 24, 2026 (SPL set 22ca78b4-f5a3-4144-cf89-5f633acf1e6d), via openFDA; the full label on DailyMed

What do FAERS reports show?

13,130 reports list magnesium sulfate among the medicines taken, each a report of something that happened, not proof the medicine caused it; 2,139 are coded as a death and 6,772 as a hospital stay. Counts follow how widely a medicine is used and watched, and they are not a measure of how risky it is. Of the 18 reactions below, 1 is named by the same term (in US spelling) in the label's adverse reactions, warnings or patient leaflet; a reaction the label does not name may still be there under another word, and a report does not show that the medicine caused it.

Reports received each year

The 25 most reported reactions

  • Drug Ineffective (a use or a product term, not a reaction)1,227
  • Off Label Use (a use or a product term, not a reaction)858
  • Nausea849
  • Pyrexia799
  • Maternal Exposure During Pregnancy (a use or a product term, not a reaction)767
  • Pain (a use or a product term, not a reaction)722
  • Foetal Exposure During Pregnancy (a use or a product term, not a reaction)690
  • Premature Baby672
  • Diarrhoea660
  • Dyspnoea612
  • Hypotension (named in the label)569
  • Anaemia560
  • Vomiting533
  • Pneumonia496
  • Fatigue485
  • Abdominal Pain469
  • Malaise469
  • Macular Degeneration463
  • Headache453
  • Exposure During Pregnancy (a use or a product term, not a reaction)446
  • Premature Delivery424
  • Sepsis416
  • Acute Kidney Injury406
  • Renal Failure405
  • Constipation (a use or a product term, not a reaction)398

Source: FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) via openFDA, reports through July 30, 2026; reactions as MedDRA preferred terms

What next?

Magnesium sulfate: the full record
label, generics, price, shortages, recalls
Side effects hub
the most reported medicines and reactions