Personally, when I start a med, I much prefer to come here or other sites with discussions between people actually taking the meds than to only reading the prescription insert which is completely statically based and impersonal. I want the real life stories.

Generally what I see here is that when people request information about a med, they get a variety of responses from "this med is great and I had no problem" to " this med is the devil incarnate". I think that's a good thing because it shows the reality that no two people respond exactly the same way to any med, and at least I can get a bit of a forewarning about possible problems to look out for.

My pdoc is very good about warning me of the most common side effects he sees in his own patients, but it still helps to get input from actual patients.