Patients often wonder if a medication is causing side effects.

Rashes, muscle pains, stomach upset, diarrhea, fatigue. All are common examples of possible side effects.

• Sometimes these symptoms are truly side effects.
• But sometimes it’s just a coincidence, and your symptoms are not related to a medication.

Before stopping a medication, be sure to check with your doctor to see if it is okay to do so.

Follow these steps:

• STEP 1: Try stopping your medication for 1-2 weeks (maybe even longer) and see if your symptoms resolve.
  • If the symptoms do not go away after stopping the medication, then it was NOT the medication causing side effects.

 

• STEP 2: To be sure it was truly the medication causing side effects, and not just coincidence, make sure to restart the medication and see if the side effects return.
  • If the symptoms return, then it’s truly a side effect from the medication.
  • If the symptoms do NOT return, then it was just a coincidence and the medication is NOT causing side effects.