Posted by Racer on May 26, 2004, at 14:13:59
In reply to Re: Side effects again » husschick, posted by partlycloudy on May 26, 2004, at 13:38:21
That's pretty clear, right? LOL
Yes, I do believe that knowing the reported side effects can make us more vigilant about them. In that sense, it's in our heads -- if we didn't know, for example, that anorgasmia was a known side effect of Prozac, we might figure we just weren't getting good [insert your favorite euphemism here]. On the other hand, knowing that anorgasmia is a reported side effect of Prozac does not mean that everyone who worries about it will experience it. I think we may become more *aware* of the relationship between some side effects and the medication, maybe be more sensitive to certain things that we might be able to brush off as irrelevant or unrelated to the drug if we didn't know the listed side effects.
Does all that make sense? I've got an example, from my own experience, if that would help make it clearer.
During a major depressive episode many years ago, I became constipated. It was a problem, but one that I kinda just put up with (although I took Metamucil regularly to try to deal with it) I started Paxil, it helped the depression, I went back to living life -- and I was still profoundly constipated. I didn't mention it to the doctor, because he was interested in my head, not my other end, so it didn't seem relevant. It was only much later than I discovered constipation listed as a side effect of Paxil. The constipation was very real, and it had a very real impact on my life, even though I didn't know that the drug could cause or exacerbate it. Had I known, though, I might have been even more sensitive to it.
I think the answer is that we all react differently to these medications, we all react differently in terms of our tolerance to specific side effects, and if your drugs work for you with minimal side effects, recognize how lucky you are.
poster:Racer
thread:350772
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040521/msgs/350812.html