Meds

[Guest baby-jessy]

so i did some digging last night on the side effects of these meds that i have been taking for about 8 years now and i was shocked that i was still on them. the pill is called Metadate CD and its used for ADHD. i take a 20 mg doseage and here are the side effects of this pill:

Most Frequent:

Anorexia, Excitement, Headache Disorder, Hypertension, Insomnia, Nausea, Nervousness, Tachyarrhythmia, Upper Abdominal Pain, Xerostomia

Less Frequent:

Abdominal Pain with Cramps, Aggressive Behavior, Allergic Dermatitis, Allergic Reactions, Angina, Arthralgia, Chest Pain, Cough, Dizziness, Drowsy, Dyskinesia, Fever, Hyperhidrosis, Pharyngitis, Sinusitis, Skin Rash, Thrombocytopenic Disorder, Tremors, Upper Respiratory Infection, Urticaria, Weight Loss

Rare:

Abnormal Hepatic Function Tests, Alopecia, Anaphylaxis, Anemia, Angioedema, Blurred Vision, Cerebral Vasculitis, Cerebrovascular Accident, Cerebrovascular Hemorrhage, Conduction Disorder of the Heart, Diarrhea, Dysmenorrhea, Exacerbation of Gilles de la Tourette's Syndrome, Exfoliative Dermatitis, Feeling Agitated, Growth Failure, Hallucinations, Impaired Cognition, Leukopenia, Migraine, Mood Changes, Motor Tic Disorder, Myocardial Infarction, Pruritus of Skin, Psychotic Disorder, Raynaud's Phenomenon, Reversible Ischemic Neurological Defect, Rhinitis, Seizure Disorder, Tonic Clonic Seizure, Toxic Psychosis, Visual Changes, Vomiting

i took the liberty of linking most of the odd ones. yes i know its wikipedia but w/e

ive also had a decent amount of these symptoms, so my question is....should i get off of these?

[alex 04]

cant you see a doc if you try a different one as you dont like the side effects of the ones your on

or what they can do to you

[ForbiddenFruit]

Confront your doctor over them. Tell him / her the entire situation and ask EXACTLY why you still require them.

If you're not satisfied, ask another for a second opinion.

[glycerine]

Consult with a doctor, of course.

You need to ask yourself which of those symptoms that you are showing you would have had anyway.

Finally, the "side effects" section of a drug description is often full of a lot of side effects that were seen in a tiny percentage of the folks in the original study. You listen to some of those effects on the TV commercials for <insert name of drug here> and it's pretty grim.

The bottom line is "is the risk from whatever it is that's being treated greater than the risk from the drug". It's like birth control pills. Yes, there is a probability of stroke and death from the pills, however the rate of death from being pregnant is much higher.

[Guest baby-jessy]

yes i know that those percentages are low but ive had some strange things happening to my body that match some of the frequent, less frequent and some rare.

[beallucanb]

Yes I was on a few that had weird side effects, so I dropped them when I could, I weened myself off them, but now after 5 years without them I need them again.

The ones I use are for nerve damage and have some nasty side effects, that I just didn't want to live with, but now I take a much lower dosage and the side effects are barely noticable.

Perhaps after being on the drug for a long time they can reduce the dose and get the same results you are getting now.

[sarah_ab]

anorexia in the medical term simply means NOT eating... it is not used in the psychological term of anorexia nervosa...

let me see one of the frequent side effects is excitement... one of the common symptoms of ADHD is over excitability... is it the meds or just ur adhd?

headache disorder... many people with adhd have sleep disturbances, which are known to cause headaches, as is to much msg intake, stopping a daily caffeine intake or cigarette intake, stress, ohh and hypertension can cause headaches, hypertension can be genetic, due to lifestyle choices such as smoking, obesity etc....

nervousness - many people with adhd have co-morbid psychological conditions such as anxiety

abdominal cramps..... diet related? if you are female hormonally related..

aggressive behavior - many people w/ adhd are known for having difficulty controlling their behavior...

i'm not saying you are not having side effects, you've been on something for 8 years though, chances are if you were going to have side effects that were severe enough to stop the medication, you would have known by now... and hopefully if you have had something severe enough to go to the doctor you've told them the medications you are on..

also as one goes through puberty the hyperactivity aspect of adhd tends to lessen... have you considered talking with your doctor about a trial run of tapering off your medication and seeing how your symptoms are w/o the meds.. 8 years is an awfully long time to be on adhd meds.... plus there many cognitive behavioral therapies which have proven results for helping people learn to control many of the aspects of adhd....

basically... have a frank discussion with the doctor who is prescribing this medication about your concerns.....

[diapermanftw]

Speaking with job experience, Metadate (and all of the narcotic Schedule 2 ADD/ADHD medications) are to put it in simple terms forms of methamphetamine. In fact the class of drug is an amphetamine. The statement that goes with medications are that your doctor believes the benefit of the medication is higher than the risk of side effect.You say you've been on the med 8 years, were you originally diagnosed as a child? Most people were diagnosed but never truly needed such strong medications. These are some serious medications; would you give speed to a 14 year old? Granted that is an extreme statement but it's true to an extent. Also a note is you say you've been on them for 8 years, you're addicted to the medication assuming you take it daily. Your body becomes used to the medications effects and you'll suffer withdrawls if you attempt to stop it without supervision. This is one of the main reasons these drugs are Schedule 2, the potential for addiction is insanely high as is the potential for abuse. The idea that you wouldn't experience more side effects the longer you are on the medication is stupid.

[Bettypooh]

Confront your doctor over them. Tell him / her the entire situation and ask EXACTLY why you still require them.

If you're not satisfied, ask another for a second opinion.

This

Most Doctors are or get complacent about long term patients, thinking that since you've not said anything you're doing fine The bottom line is always make sure you're not creating more problems than you're helping by altering doses or changing Meds under the Doctor's supervision IMHO there are really very few Meds that should be taken long-term Most (but not all) conditions are better treated through lifestyle changes. The trouble is that American Doctors know their patients don't want to hear that they need to do something they don't want to do- so they just give you a pill instead without discussing the possible alternatives Very few diseases cannot be helped to some degree without Meds and all of that needs to be done whether you still need the Meds afterward or not At least then you will need minimal Meds which equals fewer and lesser side-effects. Depending on a pill to do all the work is nutso, but is the basis of "Modern American Medicine"

We all have to accept responsibility for our health and do whatever it takes to allow our body the best possible chance to heal itself FI, hypertension and overweight means you must lose weight,like it or not. Weakness and anorexia means you need to eat more, like it or not.

Sometimes you won't like what you need to do, sometimes all that you can do isn't enough; sometimes there's nothing you can do to help. At least you need to learn what might help and try it

Our health is a combination of body, mind, and spirit so sometimes one affects the other deeply and part of the real cure will lie elsewhere. I have Clinical Depression which is a physical issue. Controlling the mind and easing the spirit go a long way to reducing the physical effects of this disease though they make no physical changes where the disease is caused in the brain. Through this method I have safely gotten off the depression meds which were having an adverse effect on me as they helped with the lows of my depression. I am better off now that I take nothing but it takes a lot of effort to stay this way

Also your body changes over time so every med you take needs to be reviewed regularly so that they can be adapted to how you are in the present so you can have a better future Talk with your Doc and if you need to be assertive do that. I'm worth that effort and so are you!

Bettypooh

[pinkfloyd]

wouldnt be allowed approval by the fda if the risks didnt out weigh the bennfits (a decent amount of instances), i know that didnt help, but talk with your croaker, sorry doc, you got alot of options when it comes to adhd meds, Lisdexamfetamine, diffrent isomers of amphetamine salts etc.....

we call these academic steroids in college, very usefull.

[redneck diaper boy]

In the early 1960's I was on a drug called Ritalin. They drugged me because my head was going in a million different directions at one time.

Head drugs are over prescribed.

so i did some digging last night on the side effects of these meds that i have been taking for about 8 years now and i was shocked that i was still on them. the pill is called Metadate CD and its used for ADHD. i take a 20 mg doseage and here are the side effects of this pill:

Most Frequent:

Anorexia, Excitement, Headache Disorder, Hypertension, Insomnia, Nausea, Nervousness, Tachyarrhythmia, Upper Abdominal Pain, Xerostomia

Less Frequent:

Abdominal Pain with Cramps, Aggressive Behavior, Allergic Dermatitis, Allergic Reactions, Angina, Arthralgia, Chest Pain, Cough, Dizziness, Drowsy, Dyskinesia, Fever, Hyperhidrosis, Pharyngitis, Sinusitis, Skin Rash, Thrombocytopenic Disorder, Tremors, Upper Respiratory Infection, Urticaria, Weight Loss

Rare:

Abnormal Hepatic Function Tests, Alopecia, Anaphylaxis, Anemia, Angioedema, Blurred Vision, Cerebral Vasculitis, Cerebrovascular Accident, Cerebrovascular Hemorrhage, Conduction Disorder of the Heart, Diarrhea, Dysmenorrhea, Exacerbation of Gilles de la Tourette's Syndrome, Exfoliative Dermatitis, Feeling Agitated, Growth Failure, Hallucinations, Impaired Cognition, Leukopenia, Migraine, Mood Changes, Motor Tic Disorder, Myocardial Infarction, http://en.wikipedia....iki/Palpitation, Pruritus of Skin, Psychotic Disorder, Raynaud's Phenomenon, Reversible Ischemic Neurological Defect, Rhinitis, Seizure Disorder, Tonic Clonic Seizure, Toxic Psychosis, Visual Changes, Vomiting

i took the liberty of linking most of the odd ones. yes i know its wikipedia but w/e

ive also had a decent amount of these symptoms, so my question is....should i get off of these?