Which medicine has the worst side effects?

Requip can make you have an “unusual urge to gamble”

Edit: I found another: Propecia can make you grow breasts that can produce milk.

Chemotherapy sounds particularly brutal.

From breastcancer.org, the side effects of chemo include

anemia/low red blood cell counts
diarrhea
fatigue
fertility issues
hair changes
infection
memory loss
menopause and menopausal symptoms
mouth and throat sores
nail changes
nausea
neuropathy (problems with hands and feet)
taste and smell changes
vaginal dryness
vomiting
weight changes

Chemotherapy also may cause other side effects that are less common, but more serious:

bone loss/osteoporosis
heart problems
vision/eye problems

I’d put my money on chemotherapy.

Exlax

Effects sorry. Not affects.

Any anti-depressant that includes “suicidal thoughts” or “serious suicidal thoughts” among its side effects.

I hate tin mouth. I had a pill that caused it. I can’t remember the name.

Snake oil.

Breast cancer chemo is especiallly brutal. Not all cancer chemos are equal. I took a “chemo” drug for my ectopic pregnancy, a small dose, and there was no side effects for me. I did take Zofran at the same time, because I’m paranoid of feeling nauseas, but most people don’t bother or need the anti-nausea drugs. That same chemo drug is used for some autoimmune diseases.

The problem with lots of chemo drugs is to kill the cancer they also kill off good things in your body. Antibiotics do that too, some worse than others.

Statin drugs used to lower cholesterol can cause kidney problems in some people that lead to bad muscle pain, sometimes severely damaging muscles or death. I know one woman who was practically crippled by a statin, and another who died. I know many people who stopped the statin right away, or within a short time, when the pains started, and they are fine. I know other people who have no trouble at all.

Any medicine you’re highly allergic to would be bad for that individual. The worst side effect being death. You can die from any and all drugs if your allergy cause anaphylaxis or Steven-Johnson Syndrome. The latter is why drugs have warnings to contact your doctor if you develop a rash. If you get Steven-Johnson’s you typically wind up on the burn unit, because your skin begins to peal off, and patients die all too often once they come down with it. A lot of doctors are clueless about it. Anyone who has worked in a burn unit in a hospital can tell you about it.

@RedDeerGuy1 People complain about the metal taste with Flagyl (metronidazole). There are probably others. Some chemos leave a bad taste in the mouth too.

Chemotherapy is totally brutal. Let me tell you, there is nothing worse. I know several people who have or who are undergoing it. One friend of mine had excruciating bone pain for 3 days after the first dose, then had a second dose three weeks later. And each time the infusion took 6 hours!

Pray that you never need to have chemo.

^^What type of cancer?

@JLeslie my aunt underwent chemo for breast cancer last year, which is what made me think of it.

^^Yes, I saw you referenced breast cancer. The girl cancers are the worst. The treatments are brutal, and the cancers are more deadly. Men have very good stats for testical cancer and prostate cancer. Not that anyone wants any cancer. Ovarian cancer is most often found late and deadly. Breast cancer has good results when found early, but I hear stories like @seeks’s too often, and I know too many women who probably went through unnecessary chemo or radiation back in the day for breast cancer.

@JLeslie In the particular case mentioned above, this friend has lung cancer, and he lost all his hair. But there have been other cases. They’ve had neuropathy, abnormally low magnesium in their blood (needing periodic infusions), loss of balance (thus are generally confined to a wheelchair), etc. As I said, totally brutal.

^^Just awful. It’s so upsetting that we have progressed more scientifically at killing cancer and not torturing the patient.