Hi Sara,
In my experience with my local pharmacist (or even our pediatrician, for that matter), he hasn't even been able to tell me about known side effects like enuresis, which I later found is clearly listed in the prescribing info for Depakote ER. Even the pediatrician said "I've never heard of that before" when I asked him about the bedwetting difficult child 2 was having when we increased his Depakote. These are people whom I would expect to have ready access to this type of information. When I asked the pharmacist about husband's profuse sweating since starting Lamictal, and whether it would go away, all I got was a recitation of the packaging information and a suggestion to call the prescribing doctor. That was frustrating for me -- but maybe my expectations are too high.
I guess what I'm expecting pharmacists and doctors to be able to tell me is something they've learned from their experience with the real people for whom they've either prescribed these drugs or filled prescriptions. It's not like they're new graduates and just starting out in their field! They've got years of experience! Or is it just that my family has the swell luck of being in that very narrow population with unheard-of side effects? I'd believe that, too!
I guess what I'm looking for is something more than hearing them recite the drug insert or the PDR. About six years ago, I had a pediatrician tell me that there was "NO WAY" that DDAVP could be causing difficult child 1's extreme aggression, because the PDR didn't report anything about that. Well, when I give my kid a medication, and he suddenly starts to exhibit unusual behavior, which then goes away after I discontinue that medication, and I'm able to repeat this "experiment" with the same results, I kinda think that's a clue that the medication was causing the behavior. He disagreed.
PDRs and package inserts cannot be exhaustive, in my opinion. That's one of the reasons I come here: to gather anecdotal, real-life experiences from people like you and the others here who are in the trenches and living with these kids on these medications on a daily basis.
Whew! I'm on a roll today :wink: Guess I'm gearing up for husband's appointment this afternoon with the neurosurgeon.
Thanks for the feedback!