Expert: Dr Alan Galbraith - 1/30/2007

Question
Did you ever find a survey on the side effects of prescription drugs? Thank you very much. Al Brown

-------------------------------------------
The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Thank you very much for your response. I will looking forward to your getting back to me with your results. Al Brown

-------------------------------------------
The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Can you tell me if any research has ever been done to determine which are the most common side effects of prescription drugs (such as nausea, diarrhea, drowsiness, dizziness, etc.). Thank you very much. Al Brown
-----Answer-----
Dear Al

It would be relatively easy to do this but time consuming. All one would have to do would be to look at drug monographs which detail adverse effects with percentage of people who suffer from a particular adverse effect and whether this was greater than with placebo or not. After this a statistical analysis could be done. I presume this has been done and if time permits over the weekend I'll try and do a literature search for you and see if it has been done. From my knowledge of common adverse effects nausea would be at the top of the list and dizziness next. I always was telling students that placebo studies showed nausea to be the commonest adverse effect of the same. If you look up the adverse effects of metoclopramide, a drug used to relieve nausea, nausea is listed as an adverse effect. I'll say no more at the moment.

I'll try to get back to you on this.

Regards

Dr Alan Galbraith
-----Answer-----
Have not been able to find anything in the literature on this as keywords used are coming up with so many publications all of which look irrelevant.

Will try again when I've got time but not promising.

Answer
Dear Al

My problem is finding suitable keywords to do a Medline search. As soon as you use adverse effects etc thousands of references are found and must admit defeat. I have been doing literature searches for forty years and cannot find a correct way to limit the search findings to a manageable number.

Sorry

Regards

Dr Alan Galbraith