The term “side effects” seems such an innocuous one, something quite minor, unimportant, nothing to worry about, a mere inconvenience. An alternative term “adverse drug effects” is little better at describing the seriousness of drug ‘side effects’.
So why do so many patients not realise that they suffer from drug ‘side effects’? Or that they can be serious? There are many reasons.
First, the medical profession does not tell patients about the ‘side effects’ of drugs they prescribe, certainly not the full extent of the harm they are known to cause, or the serious impact they can have on our health. Patient Information Leaflets usually stay, unread, within the packaging. Usually doctors tell their patients little more than that side effects are ‘minor’ or ‘rare’ or are ‘well-tolerated’.
Second, when patients develop ‘side effects’ they tend to dismiss them as just another sign of their original illness; the fact that they are unwell, and that any new health issue is merely another manifestation of being sick.
A third reason, perhaps not so well known, is that drug ‘side effects’ are often so similar to the illness for which were prescribed that it is difficult to differentiate the two. If so, an assumption is usually made that new symptoms are just an extension of the original illness which is getting worse. After all, they have been told that ‘side effects; are ‘minor’, ‘rare’ and ‘well tolerated’ and too often an assumption is made that their doctor would not give them anything that might be harmful.
So let’s see how this third factor works by looking at ADHD and the known ‘side effects’ of ADHD drugs.
ADHD, or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder has been described by the NHS Inform website as “a group of behavioural symptoms that include difficulty concentrating and paying attention, hyperactivity and impulsiveness”. It describes the main symptoms of ADHD in children and teenagers as:
Inattentiveness: having a short attention span, being easily distracted, making careless mistakes, appearing forgetful, losing things, being unable to stick at tedious or time-consuming tasks, appearing to be unable to listen to or carry out instructions, constantly changing activity or task, having difficulty organising tasks
Hyperactivity and Impulsiveness: being unable to sit still, especially in quiet surroundings, constantly fidgeting, being unable to concentrate on tasks, excessive physical movement, excessive talking, being unable to wait their turn, acting without thinking, interrupting conversations, little or no sense of danger.
NHS Inform goes on to say that symptoms of ADHD “tend to be noticed at an early age” and that “they may become more noticeable when a child’s circumstances change, like when they start school”. Indeed, I (and many other people sceptical of conventional medicine) would say that sometimes many children who diagnosed with ADHD who are little more that normal, but active, inquisitive, perhaps mischievous youngsters (who often have a bad diet that contributes to the problem).
But then they are given ADHD drugs……
There has been an ever-increasing number of children who have been prescribed ADHD drugs, like Ritalin, Adderral, Concerta, Vyvanse, Strattera, Focalin (and many others). These drugs can, and often do, have serious ‘side effects’. (For a full list of the known/accepted ‘side effects’ of each of these ADHD drugs click on each of them above (although they all have ‘side effects’ that are remarkably similar).
Going through the horrendous ‘side effects’ of Ritalin, perhaps the best known and most used of all ADHD drugs, the following can be picked out as conditions quite similar to ADHD itself. The NHS website mentions side effects such as “struggling to get to sleep”, and “becoming irritable, aggressive, tearful, and depressed”.
agitation
talking or acting with excitement you cannot control
uncontrolled vocal outbursts or tics (uncontrolled and repeated body movements)
anxiety
confusion as to time, place, or person
false or unusual sense of well-being
inability to speak
loss of consciousness
nervousness
overactive reflexes
seeing, hearing, or feeling things that are not there
talking or acting with excitement you cannot control
unusual excitement, nervousness, or restlessness
Anger
Fear
Aggression
These ‘side effects’ can be confused with ADHD itself. In other words, Ritalin and other ADHD drugs are known to cause the same, or similar ‘side effects’ to the symptoms of the (so called) illness. But the ‘side effects’ are not recognised because nothing has changed, except that their condition has got gradually worse. So they need more of the drug, or the drug in a stronger potency.
But what is important to note is that ‘side effects’ such as anger, fear and aggression are not normally present in children who have been diagnosed with ADHD!
Vernon Coleman, a highly cynical (but honest) former doctor-GP, tells this apocryphal story that I fear many people could tell, if only they realised what was happening to them as the result of taking pharmaceutical drugs.
“I take the red pill to stop the indigestion,’ says a man. ‘I get the indigestion from the blue bill and I take the blue pill for the headaches I get with the green pill and I take the green pill to stop the itching the red pill causes’”
This is not an uncommon situation. In another place Coleman outlines his “1st Law of Medicine” which is as follows:
“If you are receiving treatment for an existing disease and you develop new symptoms then, until proved otherwise, you should assume that the new symptoms are caused by the treatment you are receiving”.
Good advice, perhaps, but most people would not be able to take it as they would not be inclined to differentiate between symptoms of the illness, and other symptoms that have contracted since taking the drugs they have been given for the original or first illness!
As a homeopath I have spoken to many patients where it was difficult to differentiate between the symptoms of an illness and a drug ‘side effect’. And if anyone asks their doctor, the message most patients would receive is that the new symptoms are not drug ‘side effects’ because the drug does not have ‘side effects’!
But when the patient decided to stop taking the offending drug, regardless of the condition, their health would invariably improve, and for many it was the start of them getting entirely well. The best medicine, sometimes, is no medicine - especially if it is pharmaceutical medicine!
