false sense of well being?

Factual Questions
1

In my younger days I suffered from migraines and was given a series of medications in a search to find one that worked. One failure contained barbiturate. (It didn’t make the headache go away, it just made me sleep through it. Hell, I was able to do that by myself. No point in taking that one at all.)

Once, while waiting for the prescription to be refilled, I read the Physicians Desk Reference next to the pharmacy window. Listed among the possible adverse side effects of this medication was “may give a false sense of well being”! :eek:

What does this mean? How could that have possibly been quantified in the clinical trials? Why would they feel that they needed to list it as a disclaimer?

“Hey, it’s only supposed to make the pain stop. If you feel good, too, hey, we didn’t mean to do that!”

I can’t say that the drug gave me a false sense of well being, but the reference gave me a chuckle. Does anyone have any information on ‘false sense of well being’ as a medical state?

2

I’m going to bump this just once. Anyone have an answer?

3

I’ll give it a guess.

I can only think that this means that it impairs judgement when it comes to the ability to determine your own health. People with specific neurological damage have been known to fail to aknowledge things like paralysed limbs and other obvious ailments. When the obvious is pointed out, they deny everything and make up implausable excuses. My guess is that sometimes the medication causes similar mental blindspots.