I think there's a balance between listing every side effect possible, even the really rare ones, and only giving generic most common and mild side effect listings.

Pharmacy handouts on drugs are a good example.

I get all my meds at Shopper's Drug Mart which is a big Canadian chain.

Years ago, like around 2003, they used to give really detailed meds handouts whenever you started a new med. I remember when i went on risperidone, my Dr. told me I'd be freaked out by the meds handout, but not to be scared off by it, and that the most common side effects were X. Well I got the meds hand out, and it was 2 pages of small print nastiness, really scared me. But I trusted my Dr. and started on it. About a week later I was in New York for a conference and I started lactating. That really freaked me out. But I remembered that had been listed as a possible side effect of risperidone. So I just got the number of a local pharmacy in NY called them, talked to the pharmacist, and confirmed it. Stopped the freak out. If I hadn't known it was most likely the med, I would have really been panicking.

They've stopped handing out detailed meds sheets - I don't know why. Now the meds handouts are so generic and minimalistic that they're virtually useless. According to the meds handouts I've recieved the possible side effects for all my meds are the same, nausea, dizziness, and possible drowsiness. Well trust me, that's no where near the full story.

Now if I want a complete picture of a meds side effects, I go to mayoclinic.com and read their meds info sheets. They're really complete and informative without being alarmist.

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