Call (310) 980-9509 to speak with a licensed insurance agent.

Call (310) 980-9509 to speak with a licensed insurance agent.

Identifying Side Effects of Medication: When Are They Dangerous?

Posted by Sarah Human, August 12, 2019

After reviewing your symptoms and medical history, your doctors will prescribe medications that they feel are best for managing your condition. In most cases these prescriptions will be the right choice for your situation, but occasionally side effects do occur. What should you look for, with regard to side effects, and how can you know when a side effect might be dangerous?

First, keep in mind that the vast majority of side effects are minor, so there’s no need to panic. The next step is to educate yourself on side effects, so that you will recognize them when they do happen.

While a side effect can occur at any time, they are most likely to occur when:

  • You start taking a new medication that you haven’t taken before
  • You increase or decrease the dose of a medication you’ve been taking
  • You stop taking a drug (technically, symptoms are from withdrawal, not a side effect)

How to reduce your risk of side effects. If you are starting, stopping, or changing the dose of a medication, talk to your doctor about possible side effects. He or she can warn you about the most common ones, so that you know what to look for.

Read the inserts that your pharmacist will give you with each prescription. These will go into more detail.

Make sure you and your doctor have discussed all prescriptions you’re currently taking, along with any over-the-counter medications or supplements. Your doctor needs this information to prevent drug interactions, which can be dangerous.

What to do if a side effect occurs. If the side effect feels life threatening, call 911 or have someone drive you to the emergency room. This is extremely rare, of course. In most cases you simply need to notify your doctor. Together you can discuss whether a different dose might be appropriate for you, or another medication might work better.

You can also report side effects to the FDA, which tracks information related to drugs and possible complications. Call 1-800-332-1088 or visit their Medwatch website. This information will help them to monitor a drug’s rate of side effects and possibly help to warn other consumers of potential problems.

Need more information on your insurance options?

Contact us online to learn more

Contact Us

Close Accessibility Tools
Accessibility Controls Reset
Content Adjustments
Font Size

Default

Line Height

Default

Content Scaling

Default

Highlight Titles
Highlight Links
Highlight Forms
Align Left
Align Center
Align Right
Focus Mode
Color Adjustments
Desaturate
Monochrome
Contrast

Default

Saturation

Default

Accessibility Statement

Despite our attempts to make this website accessible for everyone, there may still be some pages or sections that are not completely accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or do not have a suitable technological solution to make them accessible. Nevertheless, we are always striving to enhance our accessibility by adding, updating, improving its options and features, and incorporating new technologies.

We want to provide our users with the best experience possible, so we strive to support as many browsers and assistive technologies as possible.

If you wish to contact this website's owner, please use the contact form on the website.

Our User Interface Adjustment Options

Font adjustments - With this tool, users can modify font size, style, letter spacing, and line height for improved alignment and readability.

Color adjustments - Users can customize their color contrast profiles to light, dark, desaturated, and monochrome.

Content highlighting - Users can prioritize key elements such as links, forms, and titles.

Content focus - Users can enable focus mode to highlight the current page information based on their mouse movement.

Close