We all know by now that the opioid epidemic was largely the result of over-prescription of painkillers by doctors and misuse of those prescriptions by patients. Part of the problem was pharmaceutical companies underselling the potential for addiction, but some of the blame rests on people ignoring the warnings. This is true for nearly any prescription medication – when is the last time that you really paid attention to that long list of side effects? Most of them are really rare or not at all likely to affect you, right? It won’t hurt anything if you tune them out or carry on as though you aren’t taking any medication, surely? Wrong. These warnings are there for a reason, and while some of them may in fact be unlikely, that doesn’t mean you should ignore them.
Go grab the nearest prescription bottle, if you have one. See all those stickers on the side? Did you read them all, or just say, “yeah, yeah, no operating a bulldozer; I’m good”? What about those television commercials for medications, where a good 20 seconds seems to be taken up by the list of side effects? You probably tuned out after the second or third. Even if you did pay attention, do you actually remember them?
A study done at UCLA and published in the Psychonomic Society’s journal Memory & Cognition studied people’s memories in regard to the side effects of medication. They included both college students and healthy older adults. In one experiment, they had the participants arrange a list of side effects according to whether they were mild, moderate, or severe and then asked them to repeat the list of effects. The older people recalled more of the moderate or severe side effects, but younger people more likely to remember the mild ones. The researchers assumed that this was partly due to life experience – young people are not as likely to have already experienced more severe symptoms in their lives. Also, it could just be the general attitude of young people that life-threatening things aren’t a real worry for them.
In another experiment, all the listed side effects were mild or moderate. When asked to recall them later, the older participants were less likely to remember the more important ones or convey them to a doctor. This is likely due to the fact that older people have poorer memories in general, but it’s worrying because they also tend to be taking more than one medication at once, each with its own side effects.
While it is important to pay attention to things like “stop use if you have shortness of breath,” if you’ve struggled with substance abuse, you need to pay particular attention to whether the drug may be habit-forming or interact badly with other drugs. Many medications warn you not to use them with alcohol, mostly because the combination could increase the risk of side effects like low blood pressure, drowsiness, and poor coordination. The labels will also generally say something like “may be habit-forming” if there’s a chance you could develop an addiction.
If you or a loved one need help with quitting drugs or alcohol, consider Asana Recovery. We offer medical detox, along with both residential and outpatient programs, and you’ll be supervised by a highly trained staff of medical professionals, counselors, and therapists. Call us any time at (949) 438-4504 to get started.
