Pro tip

If you want your medication to be taken by actual people, maybe don't list "heart attack" as the most common side effect?

(it's followed by a *, with the * explaining that this is a long-term, high-dose thing, but seriously! That's not going to establish trust in patients)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

They probably don't have much of a choice in how they present it legally.

Well, I doubt that they need to put it first in the list of ten common side effects. "Nausea" is a much nicer side effect to put first.

Maybe they have to put it in the order that it occurs. Or by order of seriousness.

Ahaha. That's one of the side effects of one of the medications I'm on. It was not encouraging! I did further research and discovered the real cause is another two things that are a side effects, and seeing as how I know a modicum about science, I know that Thing 1 and Thing 2 in combination can cause heart attacks, and that Thing 1 can predispose one to have Thing 2. So I was slightly reassured!

That was somewhat nonsensical, but I was trying not to give too many of my personal health details, as I am a paranoid little person at times. :)

Heh, I used to take medication that had "sudden death" and "one-sided paralysis" listed as (albeit rare) side effects. I always wondered how that got on there - I mean, how do you determine that 1 out of 10000 or so people suddenly died because of the medication?

Side effects lists - fun for the whole family ;-)

My mother honestly wishes they wouldn't put leaflets with the side effects in with medication. 9 times out of 10 it causes unnecessary consternation!

(Especially with me. Anxiety disorders wooo!)

Well, some of the info is really good to know, but a vast majority is just "well, I need to take it anyway" for me. It's good to know that corticosteroids cause trouble sleeping the first time you get them - but a lot of the rest of the symptoms are just "yeah, well, let's try not to worry about those lalalala"...

That's difficult, although if heart attacks are the common she effect, one wonders what the medicine is supposed to do that they would be...preferable?

It's a COX-2 inhibitor. Basically, what you give people in severe pain when they can't take NSAIDs, for example if they have ulcers/gastritis. The increased risk of heart attack is only "common" when it's taken for months or so, and it's usually only meant for the short term and rarely given as far as I can tell. I took one and it had no effect, so I'm on prednisone now anyway.

Edited 2015-12-11 17:17 (UTC)

Ah. That makes more sense - but that information isn't available or side effects tables don't have their frequency counts? It seems like the way things are makes maximum panic on minimum information.

It's one of the ten things in the "common" section, among a lot of way more harmless things, which might have been a better choice as being the first to list ;-). For short-term use it's in the "very rare" section I think.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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