A medical statement of the obvious

[matgb]

I've had maybe 10 hours proper sleep in the last week. As a result, my Doctor has prescribed me some sleeping pills, Promethazine Hydrochloride.

I collected them from the chemists on the way home from work and have just opened the packaging. Instructions are:

Take ONE at night
WARNING. THIS MEDICINE MAY MAKE YOU FEEL SLEEPY...

Really? Pills I'm supposed to take at night to make me go to sleep may make me feel sleepy and I need to be warned?

Thanks, wouldn't have figured out that sleeping pills might make me sleepy...

(Ok, the rest of it is the standard don't drive or do silly things after taking it, but, really, they actually need to warn people this?)

Comments

[83_tauri]

...THIS MEDICINE MAY MAKE YOU FEEL SLEEPY...

Kind of worrying that they seem to be classifying that as a *side effect*!

[matgb]

As it happens, since posting, I've read the instructions and what it's for, and it can also be used as a strong anti-allergen, but one you're only supposed to take at night before sleep.

So it does actually make sense if you're prescribed it for its other use, but, y'know...

[andrewhickey.info]

That's actually true of pretty much all sleeping tablets -- they're all antihistamines.

[missdiane]

There's always those few stupid people that take drugs like that, drive and get in wrecks and then try to sue the drug company.

Drugs are funny, though - I was once prescribed an anti-nausea medicine that had the possible side effect of nausea (and yep, me being the queen of side effects, that was what happened. Guess my body wanted the "oh just barf and get it over with" effect instead)

[pseudomonas]

I guess it's easier to write legislation to say "medications that can cause drowsiness must have warning X" than "medications that can cause drowsiness must have warning X unless it's bloody obvious".

What should worry you

[sir_eccles]

it only says it "may" make you drowsy.

Actually the way they list adverse side affects for drugs is quite interesting. Basically anything that a guinea pig feels during the trial is reported whether it is causally linked to the drug or not. The tester has a headache in the morning, it may have been the red wine last night or the workers with the jackhammer outside, doesn't matter it's added to the list.

This is also why drug companies stay fairly well away from twitter and other social media. If they read a tweet where someone says "oh my god I took Promethazine Hydrochloride last night and woke up this morning with the measles" they have to investigate it, write reports blah blah blah... So they they'd rather not know it exists.

[synecdochic]

Most sleeping pills are on the list of "drugs that are more likely to produce paradoxical reactions" for me. So, the two times I've taken Ambien (had to make sure the first time wasn't a fluke), I was awake and wired for about 60 hours, then dropped and slept for like 36.

[marahmarie]

If sleeping pills are all in fact antihistamines as an above commnenter said then maybe I can see why, since personally, all antihistamines except Benadryl, which makes me really sleepy, wire me up something bad.

[marahmarie]

Yep. And in other news, the sky is still blue and rain is still wet.

My favorite warnings: "Product will be HOT upon cooking, handle with extreme caution" (on microwaved food), "Product contains nuts" (on packages of, well, nuts), "Product contains dairy" (on packages containing stuff like cream of Mushroom soup, well DUH), "Product will STEAM upon opening" (on microwaved popcorn, who woulda thunk?), "Product has SHARP EDGES" (on a knife set), and so on. I'm sure there are entire websites devoted to such lawsuit-proof follies of the human imagination.

[rhythmaning]

Thank you for committing the task of making me laugh this evening.

It reminds me of a friend of mine who worked in catering. She bought a _sack_ of peanuts which, the label informed her, "contained nuts"...!

[freddiefraggles]

Have you ever looked on milk bottles? They warn about the contents containing milk.