Taking Medications

 How do you make the decision to use a medicine that you know has some pretty awful side effects?

It's a tough choice, and one that, thankfully, I have never had to make.  I have had to decide which medications are right for my son, who has ADHD.  We tried a couple of different medicines before finding the right dosage/frequency of doses, and now that he is doing well, I don't want to change things.  One of the things my doctor suggested while we were trying to find the right medicine was the Ritalin patch.  At the time, this was a brand new thing, and I decided against it because no one knew what the side effects would be.

This happens more often than you think.  A new medicine comes out, doctors prescribe it, and then after a lot of people take it, the side effects become known, and most times, they are not pleasant.  Take this accutane class action suit.  Doctor's prescribed this medicine as an acne treatment, and now find out "Accutane has been linked to severe bowel problems, suicidal tendencies, and other painful illnesses in people who used the medication regularly".  I have seen commercials on television lately about this medicine, too.  It's scary to think people are having such problems simply because they wanted to clear up their acne.

This is why I am leery of taking any type of medicine.