Do medications seem to affect you more?

[ofwarren]

I seem to get side affects with so many different, sometimes really common medications. It's so frustrating.
My latest one is famotidine that is giving me a dry mouth and low blood pressure. I was put on it because my lansoprazole was causing me horrendous constipation and disassociation feeling. Basically swapped one side effect for another!

The drug before that was metronidazole which caused what I can only describe as mental health problems. I was so upset, angry, disoriented and disassociated.

I also can't use any hormonal contraception because within 3 days I end up so angry and even suicidal.

Is it just me?

I find I need lower doses of things.

Sounds awful. I take quite a lot of supplements (related to my underactive thyroid) and sometimes I get massively overstimulated by them. A couple of times, after taking a reasonably high dose of Vitamin B12 (not in the evening) I was literally awake all night. I've since told my practitioner that I've heard people on the autistic spectrum are supposed to take lower doses of meds/supplements but she didn't get it. I also have a lot of trouble sleeping if I take Lemsip tablets, even the non-caffeinated version- I just get totally wired.

Cross post with BarrowinFurness- yes, I'm sure lower doses are better!

@FranKatzenjammer

Sounds awful. I take quite a lot of supplements (related to my underactive thyroid) and sometimes I get massively overstimulated by them. A couple of times, after taking a reasonably high dose of Vitamin B12 (not in the evening) I was literally awake all night. I've since told my practitioner that I've heard people on the autistic spectrum are supposed to take lower doses of meds/supplements but she didn't get it. I also have a lot of trouble sleeping if I take Lemsip tablets, even the non-caffeinated version- I just get totally wired.

Interesting! I also have an underactive thyroid but I'm not on supplements, just on the thyroxine.

I'm going to see if I can find any studies about it.

I get rare side affects of loads of meds. I also have to take high doses to get any impact on whatever it’s for 🙄

It looks like it's true!

"Patients with ASD are more sensitive to medication side effects, and so the benefits of use must always be weighed against the risk of developing adverse drug reactions (ADRs)."

www.formularywatch.com/view/infographic-medication-use-autism-spectrum-disorders-what-evidence

"Medications should be introduced carefully, as the nervous system in many people with Autism is very sensitive and only a low dose of medication may be needed. Medication trials should always start with the lowest possible dose, with gradual increases until its effectiveness is established"

www.autism-help.org/intervention-biomedical-drug.htm

This is a good point, it most definitely is the case for me. With the exception of pain killers as they don’t seem to do much e.g. co-codamol is meant to be super strong, leave you tired etc. Nah, not here. I have a high pain threshold luckily. But anything else hits me hard e.g. antibiotics, antidepressants, IVF drugs (l responded very well despite being pretty ancient when we did and needed low levels of drugs). Sadly covid vaccines annihilate me, lm currently in bed feeling like death warmed up after my booster

@northsouthcatlady yes the covid vaccine was bad. I'm the same as you with pain killers too, it's all so strange.

[quote ofwarren]"Medications should be introduced carefully, as the nervous system in many people with Autism is very sensitive and only a low dose of medication may be needed. Medication trials should always start with the lowest possible dose, with gradual increases until its effectiveness is established"

www.autism-help.org/intervention-biomedical-drug.htm[/quote]
This explains a lot for me, I didn't know this before. A couple of years ago I tried several different types of adhd meds and I had an awful awful reaction to them all and doctor was very hmm really about the whole thing and kept saying you can't have that bad a reaction on this dose type thing.

100% yes

I’m not autistic but I imagine they would discover similar differences if they studied people with other diversities.

@Ambushedbywine do you have ADHD? I've read it's the same for people with ADHD too.
I've always struggled with this and never made the connection.

@ambushedbywine

I’m not autistic but I imagine they would discover similar differences if they studied people with other diversities.

Anything is possible; however, it's not relevant to this thread.

@ofwarren

I also often experience awful side effects from most prescribed medication, a couple of reactions have been really bad, resulting in anaphylactic shock. Thankfully when this occurred, I was in hospital.

I reacted badly to the Covid vaccinations too. I'm dreading having the booster.

It's not just you. It might be worth having a chat with your GP about starting all drugs on the lowest dose possible?

See I don't seem to have anything weird medicine related except for once when I had a minor operation, the local anaesthetic didn't work. They had to keep jabbing me until I couldn't feel it anymore, I was like a pin cushion.

However, I've also had an epidural and a spinal block (separate births) both of which worked perfectly.

Covid vaccines didn't bother me at all, I barely even had a sore arm afterwards for any of them.

Iborophen makes me drowsy. Antihistamines knock me out. I can't have coffee after midday otherwise I can't sleep even if it's decaff coffee because it still has some caffeine in. Depo injection stopped my periods altogether and made me dead from the waist down.

Wow this this just the board that keeps on giving. I have ADHD. This rings very true for me. I rarely take anything as it’s always a case of swapping one problem for another. Had to stop the pill for example - couldn’t begin to list the issues caused. Paracetamol is ok but I generally don’t need to take more than one a year and a single one would usually be enough to resolve a headache say. I can drink limitless coffee though actually - and go right to sleep if needed.

Lansoperazole just didn't work on me.

Amlodipine gave me cellulitis

Fexofenadine also gave me cellulitis

Montelukast gave me horrific nightmares

Most other stuff just doesn't work. I have high tolerance to pain meds and antibiotics. Local anaesthetic doesn't work.

Oh and yes, could never take contraceptive pill either. Gave me dangerously high blood pressure.