Thiamine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Thiamine is a medicine sold in the U.S. under 2 brand and generic names, for beriberi, pellagra and thiamine deficiency. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Treats
- Beriberi, Pellagra and Thiamine Deficiency
- Available as
- Injectable
- Sold as
- 2 products — Thiamine Hydrochloride and Vitamin B1
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Yes
- What the pharmacy pays
- about $2 per ml — not your price
How thiamine is dosed
From the FDA label for Thiamine Hydrochloride (application ANDA080556). Other thiamine products — different forms, different strengths — are dosed differently. Follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
Wet” beriberi with myocardial failure must be treated as an emergency cardiac condition, and thiamine must be administered slowly by the IV route in this situation (see WARNINGS ). In the treatment of beriberi, 10 to 20 mg of thiamine hydrochloride are given IM three times daily for as long as two weeks. (See WARNINGS regarding repeated injections of thiamine.) An oral therapeutic multivitamin preparation containing 5 to 10 mg thiamine, administered daily for one month, is recommended to achieve body tissue saturation. Infantile beriberi that is mild may respond to oral therapy, but if collapse occurs, doses of 25 mg may cautiously be given IV. Poor dietary habits should be corrected and an abundant and well-balanced dietary intake should be prescribed. Patients with neuritis of pregnancy in whom vomiting is severe enough to preclude adequate oral therapy should receive 5 to 10 mg of thiamine hydrochloride IM daily. In the treatment of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, thiamine hydrochloride has been administered IV in an initial dose of 100 mg, followed by IM doses of 50 to 100 mg daily until the patient is consuming a regular, balanced diet. (See WARNINGS regarding repeated injections of thiamine.) Patients with marginal thiamine status to whom dextrose is being administered should receive 100 mg thiamine hydrochloride in each of the first few liters of IV fluid to avoid…
Thiamine side effects
To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact Fresenius Kabi USA, LLC at 1-800-551-7176 or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch. An occasional individual may develop a hypersensitivity or life-threatening anaphylactic reaction to thiamine, especially after repeated injections. Collapse and death have been reported. A feeling of warmth, pruritus, urticaria, weakness, sweating, nausea, restlessness, tightness of the throat, angioneurotic edema, cyanosis, pulmonary edema, and hemorrhage into the gastrointestinal tract have also been reported. Some tenderness and induration may follow IM use (see WARNINGS ).
Who shouldn’t take thiamine
A history of sensitivity to thiamine or to any of the ingredients in this drug is a contraindication. (See WARNINGS for further information.)
Every thiamine product we track (2)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
| # | Drug | Rating | Type | Form | Generic? | Pharmacy pays | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 68/100 | Prescription | Injectable | Generic | $2 | View → | |
| 2 | Not yet rated | Supplement | — | Generic | $2 | View → |
Combination products containing thiamine
A combination is a different drug — different dosing, different warnings. It is listed here so you can find it, not so you can substitute it.
Thiamine recalls
From the FDA Enforcement database. A recall covers specific lots — not the drug as a whole.
How long thiamine keeps
No thiamine label we read sets a separate limit for after opening, but they do specify how it must be stored — and the stability behind any date assumes those conditions.
Does thiamine expire? The in-use limits and storage rules from its labelsWhat people report to the FDA about thiamine
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 18,187 reports naming thiamine, and the FDA flagged 87% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:
- nausea1,200 reports
- fatigue1,072 reports
- dyspnoea1,062 reports
- diarrhoea1,026 reports
- dizziness856 reports
- vomiting846 reports
- confusional state816 reports
- headache791 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean thiamine caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label section above.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved August 26, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
What is thiamine?
Thiamine Hydrochloride is a medication used to treat Beriberi, Pellagra, Thiamine Deficiency, Wernicke Encephalopathy.
Can you take thiamine with other medicines?
It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run thiamine against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What brand names is thiamine sold under?
We track 2 thiamine-containing products in the U.S.: Thiamine Hydrochloride and Vitamin B1. They are the same active ingredient; they differ in form, manufacturer, price and FDA recall record.
What forms does thiamine come in?
Across the brands we track, thiamine is currently marketed as injectable, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.
Is there a generic thiamine?
Yes. Our catalog lists 1 generic thiamine product alongside the brand versions. A generic has the same active ingredient and must meet the FDA's bioequivalence standard; it usually costs less. Ask your pharmacist which one your plan covers.
Has thiamine been recalled?
The FDA's Enforcement database lists 2 recall records whose product description mentions thiamine. The most recent: thiamine HCl (Feb 5, 2026). A recall applies to specific lots, not to the drug as a whole — check the record for the affected lot numbers.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Thiamine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/thiamine
- MLA
- “Thiamine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/thiamine.
We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.
Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.
Read the full FDA label for thiamine on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.