The other day (ok - it was a couple of months ago) I was listening to a commercial for some drug that is supposed to help you in nervous situations (like public speaking). Anyway, when I heard the side effects, I thought I was listening to a skit on SNL or something.
The side effects, if I remember correctly, were nausea, rapid heartbeat, some digestive troubles, etc. In other words, the side effects sounded like the exact symptoms that they were trying to correct! What’s the point?
Are there any other drugs out there that have the same stupid effects? It’s almost like prescribing Viagra and then telling the patient that they would have a side effect of a low sex drive.
The side effects occur very rarely; often (obviously, depending on the drug and the specific effect) no more frequently than they do for people taking a placebo. But they have to mention them anyway.
The drug in question you are referring to is Paxil and it is perscribed for Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) which, depending on who you talk to on this board, is either a severely debilitating condition, or some bullshit a marketing guy made up so he could sell more Prozac, he just needed a new disease.
As lissener said, these are side effects that do rarely occur. They are mostly put on there for legal protection, and they often occur because some people may be hypersensitive to the drug, have an allergic reaction, have a drug-drug interaction due to something else they take in conjunction with the drug (diabetes medication, etc.), or, they could just plain be imagining the whole thing.
All the same, where prescription drugs go, lawyers follow…
Hmm, it may be for SAD, but the marketing that I’ve seen seems to promote it as something you’d want if you were nervous for a date or about to give a speech. It still seems odd to me that the marketing department would push it for that reason and then mention all of the side effects.
Maybe the beer companies should run the same ads… “Nervous for a date? Have to give a big speech? Drink Bud Light!”
“Side effects include slurring of speech and thinking your date is a lot cuter than he/she really is. Some test subjects noted slight drowsiness. Prolonged exposure could lead to liver and kidney failure.”
the wierd laws that govern televised drug ads require that they list the side effects, often everything that affects more than about 1% of the test group. However, laying out which side effects affected how many of which people takes too long for a tv ad. So you end up with a huge, basically nonsensical list. And if you hear at the end “all were similar to sugar pill” (like at the end of the Claritin ad) it means the incidence of the side effects mentioned were not statistically significantly different from those the placebo-takers experienced.
Yarster, I don’t see how you made the leap to Paxil. All the drug ads have these disclaimers.
I don’t know how he made it either, but it was accurate. That was the commercial that I remember.
Yes, they all give those disclaimers, but only Paxil’s disclaimers sounded like the drug’s side effects caused the exact problems you were trying to avoid. Imagine if Advil had to say that their side effects were headaches - it would sound rather bizarre, wouldn’t it?