Posted by Onestone on January 20, 2009, at 8:33:45
In reply to 'Side effect' is a stupid term., posted by Onestone on January 20, 2009, at 8:21:33
[Sorry about the last one, I misunderstood the posting software, somehow.]
I've just worked out what's been bugging me about drug packet leaflets:
Consider the following three side effects:
(i) Causes increased sweating.
(ii) Causes suicide.
(iii) (e.g. with edronax) Causes nausea.The first is something that is just part of using a drug, happens to everybody, and YOU JUST HAVE TO LUMP IT. The second happens to very few users of a drug, is intolerable, and IS GROUNDS FOR DISCONTINUATION OF THE DRUG. The third is TEMPORARY, and goes away after a week.
I will admit that there is no firm dividing line between (i) and (ii), but anything that kills you or renders you non-functional definitely belongs to (ii).
Yet these very different categories of things are all conflated as "side effects", even on some pages in psycho-babble. This isn't helpful.
--
Onestone.
poster:Onestone
thread:875107
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090104/msgs/875110.html