We’re putting together a “top 10″ list of disturbing side effects mentioned in drug ads and we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss any.
What are we looking for?
For example, in this AmbienCR commercial, the announcer says:
“Sleepwalking and eating or driving while not fully awake with amnesia for the event have been reported.”
Driving while not awake? With amnesia? Neat!
If you’ve noticed a disturbing side-effect in a tv drug ad, watch the ad again and write down exactly what the announcer says and the name of the drug, and email it to us at tips@consumerist.com. Put “Disturbing Side Effect” in the subject of your email. If you can find a clip of the advertisement on the internet, please include a link. If you have a commenter account, feel free to leave your suggestion in the comments.
We’ll pick the top 10 and feature them in a Consumerist post. Thanks!
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(Ugh, broken tags.)
…as seen in:
This is, hands down, the most hilarious set of comments I’ve ever seen on any posting on this site. (Chortle, chortle, chortle).
Motilium (domperidone).
This drug is no longer approved for use in the US of A, but those with low supply issues know where to get it.
Galactorrhoea is “milky secretion from the breast.” The drug is used to move the contents of your stomach through it quicker (to help quell nausea), but the side effects of increased lactation are probably not something you’d want, unless you’re trying to breastfeed with extremely low supply.
It works, by the way.
[www.inhousedrugstore.com]
“The most frequent reactions to Motilium are those related to elevated prolactin levels including breast tenderness, galactorrhoea, gynaecomastia and amenorrhoea. These effects are dose-related and gradually resolve after lowering the dose or discontinuing treatment.”
The other drug that is approved for treating low supply, Reglan, has a major side effect – Depression. Not something a new mother needs.
I recently saw a commercial where one of the side effects was that the pill actually gave you Lymphoma.
I was previously unaware you could ‘catch’ cancer from a pill.
I will always remember the one that said “May cause Wet Stool and Uncontrollable bowel movements…”
A side effect of diet drug, Alli:
“Gas with an oily anal discharge”
Ask your doctor if The Consumerist is right for you.
@clank-o-tron: This kind of thing is common usually in drugs that deal with your psychology. Most anti-depressants have this especially the SSRI ones because in theory they work by elevating your seratonin levels. But theoretically this should have an almost instantaneous effect on your mood, but in reality it takes months for it to really kick in. Thus they know the drug helps with depression, but the mechanism is still a bit fuzzy because it seems like kicking seratonin into high gear seems to only be step 1 of 20 that needs to happen.
@jdmba:
I’ve seen the same one – I think one of the other side effects is death. It’s a commercial where they are inter-tubing in the ocean, and the voice over goes through these awful side effects.
Combinations can be bad too when docs start prescribing stuff to counteract the side effects of other stuff they shouldn’t have prescribed in the first place.
I was put on Paxil for anxiety at one point. Paxil can bring you: anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, impulsivity, akathisia (severe restlessness), and finally, insanity.
This was later supplemented with Wellbutrin. That was the one that pushed me over the edge. Or maybe it was the combo. But basically, the world split in two, the two halves shifting apart a little bit, and tilted 45 degrees to the right. And stayed that way. Was crazy trying to walk in a straight line.
But Paxil and these other drugs are things that you can’t just quit no matter how much you may want to. I tried. I was in agony for a week, and finally on my knees on the kitchen floor calling the doc before i finally had to go back on it and ween down for two months.
Dangerous stuff out there. What ever happened to good ol’ Valium?
But at least there’s no uncontrollable crapping with that stuff. That would have been horrible.
Alli FTW
From [myalli.com]
Such effects may include oily spotting, loose stools, and more frequent stools that may be hard to control.
From that linked cracked article…
[www.cracked.com]
My doctor knew I was going on a cruise and that I already sometimes got hives when I went out in the sun, but he put me on Levaquin for bronchitis and a sinus infection. He didn’t tell me anything about phototoxicity! When I got out there and started to blister, I didn’t understand what the heck was going on! I had to wear long sleeved shirts and wrap my legs in towels for the whole cruise otherwise I looked like a leper!
Ambien is sold as stinox in Australia, how about a leg amputation? Or jumpping off a balcony?
[www.news.com.au]
These all sound fun but the wosrt that I have had is waking up in a bed full of melted chocolate in a psych hospital. Stilnox anyone?
[uk]
For the parody drug “Lesebrex” which is a take off on Celebrex.
Tired of being a dike?! TRY LESEBREX!
Its sad that I am a pharmacy student and cant think of more but quite honestly, I don’t pay attention to drug commercials when I see them. Get tired of them and their sleezy nature.
-Phex
-3rd Year PharmD/MBA Candidate
I get a kick out of medications that have your current symptom as a side effect. Like upset stomach as a side effect of Pepto Bismol. I believe a common acetaminophen product, or something similar, lists headaches as a side effect.
I do recall a enlarged prostate medication having the side effect “may experience the desire to dress up like a woman and sing ‘If I were a rich girl’ spontaenously.”
Ok. I lied about that one.
I couldn’t find the exact quote for the Celebrex commercial I saw, but it was along the lines of;
“Celebrex, like all other NSAIDS, can cause serious intestinal problems, such as ulcers, or internal bleeding, which may cause sudden death.”
Cough syrup:
Small doses help suppress coughing, but larger doses can cause fever, confusion, impaired judgment, blurred vision, dizziness, paranoia, excessive sweating, slurred speech, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, headache, lethargy, numbness of fingers and toes, redness of face, dry and itchy skin, loss of consciousness, seizures, brain damage, and even death.
The depression medicines that warn of erectile dysfunction … “I can’t get a boner, but I don’t care!!”
@jdmba: Yes, Enbril can give you cancer.
seizures, brain damage, and death… from cough syrup. I was just drinking some of that last week. I failed to read the warning until today.
I confess to “sleep-online-shopping with amnesia” several times while on Ambien. Urban Outfitters is apparently a favorite haunt of my Ambien-addled brain, because I’ve received several deliveries of UO products with either very little or absolutely no memory of ordering them. At least I was sensible enough to restrict my shopping to the sale items. I’m cheap even asleep!
Trazodone (otherwise known as Desyrel):
(it’s an anti-depressant)
Among the laundry list of side effects, these are some of the more interesting ones…. hallucinations,
irregular heartbeat,
painful erections,
seizures,
strokes,
retardation,
uncontrollable laughter,
coma,
and suicide.
Good stuff man.
I heard this one on the radio quite a few years ago on the radio. I believe they were hocking some disgustingly unhealthy diet pill of one sort or another. Although my memory fails in regards to the product I will never forget the side effect.
“May cause gas with oily discharge.”
@Dakine:
uncontrollable laughter,
coma,
and suicide.
Love that Joker!
I once was reading that big book that lists all the drugs made and one drug listed “may cause sudden and/or unexpected death”.
What drug would be prescribed that would cause “expected death”? (excepting death row stuff)
@Zabella: Oi!
I feel like Ambien is missing out on a marketing hook by not saying “Ambien CR – The CR stands for Can’t Remember”
@cpalifer: that’s disturbing? happens to me all the time with no drugs. doesn’t it with everyone else?
This says it all
+ Watch video
Increased gambling or sexual urges. I don’t remember the exact medication, but I do remember that it was an allergy medication.
Also, eating or driving while asleep with no memory of the actions is a great one as well.
@Dakine: To that long list.
Strange, that those side effects of meds are the same for me for my past experiences of sex and work.
The reason anti-depressants may cause suicide is that unipolar depression is characterized by sheer lack of energy, whereas bipolar disorder, obviously, involves periods of mania.
In other words, there are people who are depressed but don’t want to kill themselves, and then people who want to kill themselves but simply lack the energy.
These people should not be on the anti-depressants that make you, uh, bouncy.
losing your sense of taste is an odd possible side effect (i think it’s for high-blood pressure medication).
Panic attacks and excessive sweating are another couple of possible side-effects from an antidepressant.
The funniest/weirdest side effect I’ve ever had was “increase in unexplained yawning”.
Seriously. And it was at the bottom of the side effect list, with something like .2% chance of it.
But it stopped when I switched to the generic.
If you had an erection for more than 4 hours and went to see a doctor, what would he do for you? Force you to watch reruns of Rosanne?
@Rectilinear Propagation: I can just imagine someone thinking about this. “hmm, clear skin or dementia…okay sounds like a fair trade off-I’ll do it!”
@jdmba: LMAO “not appropiate for women” “seeing the dead” X)
“A condition known as ‘Hot Dog Fingers’”
“Seeing the Dead.”
Anal leakage, numbness and temporary blindness.
Great… so now I’m leaking out my ass, I can’t feel it and even if I manage to detect my rectal effluence by way of smell or because I somehow heard my bum being squishy I can’t see well enough to even clean myself up.
@danno99:
You don’t want to know… it involves a syringe…
I don’t wanna talk about this anymore.
@Dakine:
They never say blindness though. They always say something like “If you experience a sudden loss or decrease in vision” at the super-fast announcer speed so you don’t quite catch that they’re saying blindness.
From Wikipedia: “Mefloquine frequently produces side effects, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and dizziness. Several associations with neurological events have been made, namely affective and anxiety disorders, hallucinations, sleep disturbances, psychosis, toxic encephalopathy, convulsions and delirium. Cardiovascular effects have been recorded with bradycardia and sinus arrhythmia being consistently recorded in 68% of patients treated with Mefloquine (in one hospital-based study).”
Great! This is the crap I took in Iraq… and I thought all the pretty colors I was seeing was just dehydration.
@Jmatthew: You’re thinking of Lamisil:
[www.healthy-skin-guide.com]
who the hell is so desperate for a cholesteral pill or anti-depressant or something that they’re like, “okay, let’s do it… I’ll risk going blind.”
@Dakine: Anyone who’s cholesterol or depression is so severe that it might result in death (suicide for the depression) and other meds haven’t worked.
How about may result in a weakened immune system and death? Some drug for Psoriasis I saw on tv.
@bohemian:
You have a good point here. The side effects of Lyrica seems counterproductive here… It certainly doesn’t do anything for the condition.
You forgot the one that warns you might have sex while asleep, and not remember
Lipitor is Constipation and Gas. Feels like someone filled you up with air and stuck in a cork.
ZITHROMAX (Zpack Antibiotic)
seek emergency medical attention: an allergic reaction (difficulty breathing; closing of the throat; swelling of the lips, tongue, or face; or hives); or liver damage (yellowing of the skin or eyes, nausea, abdominal pain or discomfort, unusual bleeding or bruising, severe fatigue). Other, less serious side effects may be more likely to occur. Continue to take Zithromax and talk to your doctor if you experience nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or abdominal pain; unusual dizziness, fatigue, or headache; vaginal yeast infection; a rash; or increased sensitivity to sunlight. Side effects other than those listed here may also occur.
Some are confusing side effects with adverse effects.
Here is an adverse effect of Lamictal:
Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis: Sort of like flesh eating bacteria, but without the bacteria and it can effect the entire body. It is deadly.
What about the Restless Leg Syndrome side effects of “may cause compulsive gambling or sexual addiction”.
href=”#c6252580″>matt314159:
I remember pointing that out to my wife, and it’s not just death it’s all the other side effects are pretty nasty to. You might as well just give them some anthrax for the bi-polar disorder.
I always like the social anxiety drug that had side effects like nauseo, diarreah, vomiting. I think it was Paxil? Had the happy blob thing that was all sad and morose and anxious about being around others socially.
Seriously, I can buy a fifth of cheap vodka, and get the same side effects, and the same loss of anxiety about social situations, for far less.
I personally think most of these drugs out now do much more harm than good. The only ones I have any confidence in are Tylenol (for headaches and minor pains), baking soda for heartburn (but not a drug), Vicodin (for hardcore pain or dental work pain), (and definitely a limited amount even though it’s yummy, cuz Vicodin has it’s own drawbacks), and that’s pretty much all I ever ingest anymore. And of course, anesthetics when you need them like Lidocaine or whatever if you gotta get stitched up. (recently took a chainsaw in the knee and had to get stitches… was glad for the Lido.)
I think my favorite would have to be for some sleep-aid (I think it was Lunesta). One of the side-effects they mentioned was “next day drowsiness.” C’mon now.