Medication

[darkknightradic]

One of the (many) side effects from the medication I take for bipolar disorder is the possibility of causing diabetes and because there is a family history of diabetes my psychiatrist wants me to check my blood sugar once every three months. So far my dad tells me that my blood sugar checks out just fine for both times I've actually checked it (a

Comments

[professoryackle]

I presume you're talking about Lithium? I'm on that; it serves me well. The thing is that although there are several pretty extreme side-effects (thyroid probs, kidney failure) they don't happen overnight, in fact they creep up very slowly indeed. Having regular blood tests means that if any problems to begin to develop, they can discontinue the drug and no harm done (aside from having to find new meds).

Do you have any actual present-day side-effects? Are they worse than, say, other meds you've been on?

[darkknightradic]

I'm talking about meds in general. Mine all run the risk of causing liver damage, one has the possibility of causing/making worse diabetes, etc.

I was just musing aloud. I don't have any myself, I just don't like the fact that they aren't safer. When a side-effect of taking a medication is death, it's time to take a serious look at medication safety.