Do you get side effects from your drugs?

[AlexaHU]

Are you experiencing a side effect from your drugs?

Or are you taking more than one medicine & feeling unwell, which could be a side effect?

If you live in the UK, the @MHRAgovuk are asking for you to report this to them here on their Yellow Card website.

You can find more details about this here: gov.uk/government/news/help...

And the website for reporting side effects is here: yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk/

[silverfox7]

Thank you for posting as I'm sure not everyone is familiar with this

[Hidden]

Trouble is many are unaware of it as can creep up on you without realising your having an issue or you just don't connect it with what your taking!

Also things like amytrypline stay in your body a long time as live in the fat layers so you are on something else a fair while after you have stopped it yet new things is having an issue with amytrypline.

But this is where your Quack should be onto it! but there often not interested in you once gone out the door till next time you have to go there

[userotc]

Not sure of point of this. Over a year ago, I completed yellow card for side effects of drug prescribed to me by GP. Yet the drug is still available for anyone else.

[helvella in reply to userotc]

userotc,

You really could not expect a medicine to be removed from the market in response to a single report.

We might very much wish that action were taken more urgently, but the MHRA has to assess all the incoming information. And all the consequences of acting.

That is why each and every yellow card report is important. The more they receive, the clearer the picture, the better able the MHRA is to act.

A few years ago one product[1] that I was taking was found to be delivering a dose lower than that claimed. The MHRA did not immediately act because there was at the same time a shortage of the main alternative. I suffered from that and wish that we had known straight-away but I also recognise that immediate removal from the market might have had a much greater impact on many more people.

[1] Teva levothyroxine (old formulation up to about 2013).

[helvella]

AlexaHU,

I consider the Yellow Card scheme to be very important. Unfortunately, it would appear that many doctors do not take the same view except in the most serious cases.

Also, many patients feel that they are not able to report issues.

I'd like to emphasise one word in the MHRA's own text:

The Medicines Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has launched a social media campaign to promote reporting of suspected side effects from over-the-counter medicines.

No proof is expected. Suspicion is sufficient reason to make a report.