Okay, it's not like I dont' trust my epi, but, when it comes to my body and my well-being, I take end responsibility for my healthcare and my healthcare choices. My doc isn't the one who decides what course of treatment is best for me. He makes recommendations and
I decide what's the best course of treatment for me. After all, I'm the one that's putting the pill in my mouth. That said...
Yes, I check the side effects first. I want to see if I even want to be ON the drug. If, say, 30% of people have severe dizziness, it's not the drug for me. I wouldn't risk it because then I couldn't drive again. Or if it hadn't been approved for monotherapy yet and that's how we are using it, I'd ask my doc about that so I could understand his thinking better.
Also if it has a black box warning and the doc didn't tell me about it, that's something the patient HAS to know, or it could kill them. Like Lamictal and skin rash. This is a couple of years old, but here's an example of news of a black box warning about a side effect I'd DEFINITELY want to know about:
In 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration instructed manufacturers of anticonvulsants to include a label warning about the increased risk of suicidal thoughts or actions associated with these drugs.
Drugs.com
Black Box Warning:
Definition: Not all pharmaceutical drugs are safe for all patients to take. When a prescription drug is known to be effective for some patients, but may cause serious side effects in others, the FDA will require the drug's printed materials, both inside the packaging and on materials developed for the doctors who may prescribe the drug, to carry a warning about those adverse effects. That warning is surrounded by a printed black box; thus the name.
A black box warning is the strongest form of warning issued by the FDA about a drug, the step taken just short of removing the drug from the market. It's a recognition of how harmful the drug can be if given to patients who are at risk of developing the possible adverse side effects.
http://patients.about.com/od/glossary/g/blackboxwarning.htm
The seizure meds we are on are pretty serious, and the side effects can be pretty serious. It's not like we're just popping a Tums. I want to know what I'm putting in my body.
I also look up how long the drug has been out, and check on any postmarking (after release) side effects. Googling it will provide most of that, and this site provides the rest.
http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/InformationOnDrugs/ucm135151.htm If a drug hasn't been out very long, chances are the full range of side effects are not known, and the long term side effects are definitely not known, so the drug is riskier. That alone wouldn't prevent me from taking a drug I needed, but it would factor into the decision.
The above FDA website kind of sucks because it is not a searchable data base. It's a downloadable PDF file so you have to want the info really badly, because you have to dig it out. One thing on that site that I DO love is info on the inactive ingredients that are in any given drug/manufacturer. Sometimes I have a reaction to a drug and I suspect the inactive ingredients, not the drug itself. Just changing the supplier does the trick. (I was this way with Cipro, an antibiotic)
The last reason I now read the package insert in advance is because I get a side effect and my epi's typical response is "that's not a side effect of <insert drug here>". When I am armed with the package insert he has to address that side effect. I hate it when he says that it hasn't held true in clinical practice. That's when I whip out my printed out, highlighted page from
www.askapatient.com. I think I drive him a little nuts sometimes, lol........
Sighhhhhh... Homework, homework, homework.....
