Your mother already had the flu? What was her temp? Was she dehydrated? What other meds was she on?

She was on no other meds except her regular BP and cholesterol medication. The ER doctor immediately diagnosed a drug reaction, confirmed by her primary doc. They stopped the Tamiflu and the confusion subsided as soon as it had cleared her system.

Any medicine or drug can have bad side effects and I didn't know this was one for tamiflu. Best wishes for fast healing to her.

Was bouncing around like a cocaine fiend before bedtime.

you have to take it just as soon as you get sick, then it may shorten the duration of your symptoms by a few hours to a day. Being already sick a day or 2 is too late and renders it useless. So that means its pretty much always useless because people are too sick before they get to the doctor for it to have any effect, other than the dangerous unwanted side effects. Too bad doctors persist in giving it to people.

Another wonderful gift from Rumsfled along with aspartame and the Iraq invasion.

Worked great to alleviate severity and knock out the worst of in 24 hours. Still had downtime though due to weakness.

that you have no way of knowing how sick you would have got without it, or how long it would have lasted. You can't even tell by the people around you.

This year, everyone I was around had a cold that knocked them out for the better part of a week. Mine lasted 4 hours. I was using some kind of mushroom based immune support. Did it work? I tend to think so but maybe my immune system is healthy without it and I think the placebo effect works well too.

have been suffering the worst of it for another 24-36 hours, totally about five days. Hubby's work contacts who had the flu were shut down 5-6 days. But yes, everyone's immune system is different, but the CDC usually keeps pretty good numbers that I generally "fit" into.

Last year my flu led to the worst asthma attack of my life. They gave me tamiflu which I started taking as soon as possible but it didn't reduce or shorten the symptoms one whit. At least I didn't have a psychotic episode or any other side effects.

It worked great, really seemed miraculous. Within 24 hours, the uncontrollable shivering, fever, nausea and weakness were gone. I am now a big fan of Tamiflu, but this rare and dangerous side effect should be made known to patients and their families. I had no idea it could cause psychosis. Fortunately, it did not affect my husband mentally.

I started taking tamiflu a couple of days ago. I didnt know there were drastic side effects as that.

It's one of the things that has to be considered.

I was actually thinking about taking it this year if I caught the flu (haven't had the flu in 20 years, I think), because I keep hearing how everyone is getting sick. I'm glad I saw this, I will not put myself through that. When I was a kid I use to hallucinate from flu fevers.
No thanks—I'd rather have a mild flu hallucination.

These are antivirals. Others recommended this year are Relenza and Rapivab (new this year). An older one is amantadine, but widespread use of that has made it very ineffective against current flu virus strains.

Relenza is known to cause bronchospasms. Rapivab is very new so we just don't know.

for three days when I got the chicken pox. Unfortunately, I got them after puberty which supposedly makes them worse, and boy, was it horrible. I had them even on the bottom of my feet and under my eyelids. In my ears, everywhere.

I've never been so sick in my life. I think I would still prefer that over going psychotic.

back in 2006 when I was sick with the flu. I happened to go to the international hospital here in Seoul (and boy was that expensive even with insurance) and the doctor prescribed Tamiflu. I think I was on it two or three days (honestly it was so long ago, I don't know for sure). If I was in a similar situation again I might consider refusing it.

I still can't believe how they don't adjust medication based on weight. They do a better job for dogs than they do for humans.

she wrote a prescription. Apparently you don't need to know what you are treating before get out the scrip pad these days. Virus or bacteria -- she don't give a shit.

A day later, neighbor comes home, finds her husband who is about 80YO, on the toilet crying. He had been there for hours unable to move, weakness in his limbs and upper body, confusion, odd pain in limbs. She called me to help. What was the prescription? I asked.

"Cipro." He had a mild fever and seemed tired so she wrote a scrip for Cipro (!?) They didn't know that Cipro was originally for Anthrax exposure, which is a long way from a runny nose

Possible side effects:

An older friend had breast cancer and needed a mastectomy. Her dr was a GP and did the surgery. Naturally, he didn't know what the hell he was doing. Her new dr at a major medical center was so upset about her physical results from the surgery that she called him up and chewed him out, stressing that he was using 1970s techniques. She told him he better not do any more of those surgeries or she'd report him for malpractice.

I remember questioning my friend about this dr before her surgery, but she said she had no issue with him doing it. She's learned the hard way that they aren't to be revered, just respected.

Most of the explosion in SSRI use, etc is due to off-label use/prescriptions and they are totally legal. Once a drug is approved for anything -- psychosis, bi-polar disorders -- they can prescribe it for ANYTHING, a headache if they want to.

I think the trick is to find a doctor who shares one's views on the risks versus benefits of these new powerful scrip drugs (and all the nonsense about cholesterol). I asked my doctor for Propecia, he said try Rogaine (topical and less prone to side effects) first. I love my doctor. same for my dentist -- he sent to the health food store before a surgery, to get refrigerated (live) probiotics to correct the side effects of the antibiotics he put me on. Worked well.

Sadly, I don't think my neighbors' Cipro, Ritalin, Zoloft, Prozac loving doctor is anything unusual in the US.

Before "hiring" him or her. I tend to be conservative about meds anyway, and tell them that I appreciate the nursing care reminders and getting ready for post-op before "going under the knife," such as getting typical scripts filled first, filling the list of items needed (cold packs, Colace, other OTC stuff) before anyone is anesthetized. It's not always easy to find drs who focus beyond what they to what the patient and family can do.

But they are not. Some very commonly used agents have serious side effects. Obey your health care provider but be careful.

go down easy with the general middle age adult population can wreak havoc on the elderly (and the very young, of course). I've always been a "low-dose" kind of person, except in the case of certain antibiotics which won't work at low doses.

People should always be aware of potential side effects and family history.

Like many of my father's relatives. They can get quite depressed in old age where it is detrimental to their health. Invariably they get an antidepressant and go stark raving mad. Meanwhile, many of us younger members take antidepressants with good effect and no madness.

(Please, no "antidepressants are poison" comments. Many of us function because of them.)

where they should take it slow for many anti-depressants because they have a long half-life in your system, and you might not see a bad reaction until it is too late.

I've taken Zoloft for a long time, and it has helped me TREMENDOUSLY. But you have stories of people that can't function on it, either. The first one I was on (been a while don't remember which one it was) made me sick as a dog and angry about the sun coming up in the morning and irate at air because it had to be breathed.

Needless to say, I quit taking that one immediately. Zoloft, however, has worked wonders for me, and I've had none of the side effects that a lot of people get.

He ended up in the ER and spent the night in the hospital. The ER doc diagnosed him with Transient Global Amnesia. It lasted for 24 hours and he has no memory of any of it. It was the strangest thing I've ever seen. I'm convinced the best thing most of us can do is stay away from any kind of medication or supplement unless it's absolutely necessary.

unlike all the other meds ads. Why not? Sat next to a 60 year woman at husband's company Christmas party. Wife of one of his coworkers who is still teaching. Got her flu shot but got flu, went to ER, and got pneumonia also. Hospital told her 62 year old husband, who got his flu shot, had NO symptoms at all, to take Tamiflu. WHY when he had flu shot, no SYMPTOMS of flu, to get Tamiflu? If it ain't broken, don't attempt to fix it. You might just get unintended consequences.

Certainly not for anyone without a confirmed influenza infection. You'd be surprised how often I get patients in clinic with a little dribble and sniffle, oxygen saturation normal, afebrile, and in no acute respiratory distress, who are convinced they have the flu. The vast majority of the time, I'm able to convince them they have a garden-variety upper respiratory infection, and some symptomatic care and plenty of fluids will help. On rarer occasions, I'll have people demand antibiotics, which don't cure a viral infection, of course. And still more rarely, I have people demand Tamiflu regardless of my ruling out influenza as a cause of their symptoms.

Patient education is my favorite part of the job, and I do a lot of it.

Not prescribing medications that aren't needed, or informing patients that the risk of treatment with a particular med may outweigh any benefit, is another important part.