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When I search for the adverse effects of medications, what I usually find is a list of effects and their occurance rate. But it's evident that different medications cause adverse effects with different severity. How do I find information about the severity (in average)?

asmani
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    Are you asking about the severity of a particular adverse event? I think this is quite unlikely to be available unless that particular adverse event was studied intensely for a given medication (like if it is particularly common), or with very coarse granularity (for example, a study might differentiate between mild/severe). – Bryan Krause Aug 27 '19 at 20:43
  • Yes, that's what I'm looking for. The problem is that I can't find easy-to-access lists even for very common meds, like SSRIs. Now that you mentioned, I actually wanted to also ask about overall adverse effects. Is there a term for this? I think "safety" is something else. – asmani Aug 28 '19 at 04:17
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    I'm not sure I understand. Are you asking about severity of a horrific adverse effect like Stevens Johnson Syndrome vs. something simple like nausea, or are you asking about mild nausea vs. severe? – Carey Gregory Aug 28 '19 at 04:37
  • Just simple ones like nausea, headache, insomnia etc. – asmani Aug 28 '19 at 04:53
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    It seems you are looking for the severity of side effects of a particular drug or a group of drugs. Websites, like Drugs.com usually do not say "severe" headache, but some other online sources do - you just type "severe headache" + "a particular drug" in a search engine and you'll surely find something. It works for nitroglycerin, for example. – Jan Aug 28 '19 at 09:08
  • I don't think this question can be answered definitively for the reason @BryanKrause mentioned. – Carey Gregory Aug 28 '19 at 14:22
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    Yes, to clarify, the way the studies typically work (simplifying of course) is they give some drug, and ask people "do you have a headache?" and some number say "yes." They're asking a bunch of other stuff at the same time so they don't get into specifics. For non life threatening side effects it's unlikely to be studied much further. – Bryan Krause Aug 28 '19 at 14:30
  • Thanks Bryan, I think I learned what I was looking for. – asmani Aug 28 '19 at 15:28
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    Yes, the studies done before drugs come out usually give the number of people experiencing symptoms while on medications vs. while on placebo, and if/how the symptom was significant. Of all the drug studies I've read (which isn't in the hundreds but more like the dozens), headache is the most common symptom and was reported at almost identical proportions in both groups, followed by nausea (similar numbers) which says something about self-reported symptoms. The side effects you really have to worry about are the ones the drug companies are trying to bury. – anongoodnurse Aug 29 '19 at 00:00
  • @anongoodnurse Yes. Actually seeing nausea and headache so often was the initial motivation for making the thread. Now if the placebo group has the same rate of nausea and headache, why do they list it as an adverse effect of "the medication"? I know placebo effect is present anyway, but that seems misleading. I recently been taking Pramipexole, which has a partly known "mechanism" for causing nausea. But if you just look at the list, look same as other drugs. – asmani Aug 29 '19 at 04:27
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    @Asmani - Because by law, they must list any adverse effect. Unfortunately, they sometimes break the law. – anongoodnurse Aug 29 '19 at 12:35

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