AboutDr Alan Galbraith Expertise I can answer most questions on most drugs. Answers can be given in either technical or layperson terminology. My main areas of interest are psychiatric, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular drugs.
Experience I have been a university lecturer/head of department for almost thirty years, but am now retired. My research interests were alcohol, smoking and cardiovascular disease.
Organizations Institute of Biology, London.
Publications Author of "Fundamentals of Pharmacology" 5th Edition published in November 2007 by Pearson Education, Australia.
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.
