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Question on side effects!

  • 24-11-2012 7:52pm
    #1
    SillyMangoX
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,003 ✭✭✭


    How can it be that a drug which is used to treat a condition thing has side effects which are the same as the symptoms of the condition? Is it just that the medication didn't work so the symptoms are still there, or is exacerbates the symptoms already present? Just something I found interesting when reading data sheets!


Comments

  • #2
    locum-motion
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,143 ✭✭✭locum-motion


    While the adverse effects of a toxic dose of quinine are similar to the symptoms of malaria*, I'd be interested to hear about any other examples you have found.


    * This simple fact was observed by Samuel Hahnemann back in the 18somethings. He chose to extrapolate that one simple fact into a theory (for which he presented no proof or evidence whatsoever) that a small dose of ANY drug will treat any disease that has similar symptoms to those produced by an overdose of the same drug. This is, of course, complete and utter twaddle of the highest order, but yet to this day gullible people still pay huge sums of money to quacks who peddle this nonsense. It's known as homoeopathy.


  • #3
    SillyMangoX
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,003 ✭✭✭SillyMangoX


    Well the example I found was in the case of xanax. It is used to treat anxiety attacks yet the side effects include dizziness, palpitations, syncope, anxiety (!), weakness and drowsiness which are all in themselves symptoms of anxiety attacks. I was then talking to my mother who works in the mental health sector and she told me for example atavan, which is meant to be used to treat their patients in an acute state of agitation can actually make them even more agitated!


  • #4
    locum-motion
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,143 ✭✭✭locum-motion


    The SPC (Summary of Product Characteristics) document for Xanax can be found here.http://www.imb.ie/images/uploaded/swedocuments/LicenseSPC_PA0822-141-002_25052012151331.pdf

    Of the six symptoms/side effects you mentioned:
    Palpitations and syncope don't appear on the SPC list at all, unless I missed them.
    Anxiety is listed, along with the warning to take note of another section which describes it as a paradoxical (out of the ordinary) reaction and says treatment is to be stopped if it happens.
    Dizziness and weakness are quoted as occurring in 1-10% and 0.1-1% of patients respectively.
    Drowsiness (aka sedation) happens in 10% or more of patients, but to be honest it's actually to be expected due to the manner in which Xanax works.

    All in all, I don't think that adds up to a pattern of the drug causing the symptoms you're trying to treat. While one or more of these symptoms/side effects MAY occur, and while one of more of those symptoms MAY occur in a person suffering with anxiety, it would be pushing it to suggest that the drug causes anxiety attacks, which seemed to me to be where you were going.

    Similarly, any increase in agitation in a patient given Ativan would be a paradoxical reaction, and would be a reason to choose a different drug for the next episode.


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