The warnings on most over-the-counter medicines are, quite frankly, rubbish.

If a list of potential side effects includes the phrase, “May cause nausea.” this does not really help you.   It is a misleading statement.  A bit like those “May contain nuts” warnings on some foods.  The chance is probably much less than 1% but they have to put on there anyway.

I would like to live in a world where all of those medicinal warnings were for things that you definitely would suffer from. Saying that “possible side effects may include” isn’t really very much information when you’re trying to make a reasoned judgement on whether to imbibe a particular medicine.

I want some proper analysis, and if possible, some cold hard statistics.

“This headache tablet will, in 4.3% of cases, make you shit like a rusty garden tap.”

That is a useful warning. I know it’s pretty unlikely, and if my headache is therefore bad enough I would be willing to risk a dose of the watery stools.

It works the other way too.  Would you bother taking a sleeping tablet that only had a 54% chance of making you drowsy?

I recommend these medicines should carry tables much like you see on most food packaging outlining the nutritional facts of the product you are buying.

• 97% chance of pain relief.
• 23% chance of upset stomach.
• 3% chance of vomiting and diarrhea.
• 0.001% chance of elephantiasis of the testicles.
• 0.0000001% chance of crying diamonds.

Would you take a headache tablet with the above information on it?

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The warnings on most over-the-counter medicines are, quite frankly, rubbish.

If a list of potential side effects includes the phrase, “May cause nausea.” this does not really help you.   It is a misleading statement.  A bit like those “May contain nuts” warnings on some foods.  The chance is probably much less than 1% but they have to put on there anyway.

I would like to live in a world where all of those medicinal warnings were for things that you definitely would suffer from. Saying that “possible side effects may include” isn’t really very much information when you’re trying to make a reasoned judgement on whether to imbibe a particular medicine.

I want some proper analysis, and if possible, some cold hard statistics.

“This headache tablet will, in 4.3% of cases, make you shit like a rusty garden tap.”

That is a useful warning. I know it’s pretty unlikely, and if my headache is therefore bad enough I would be willing to risk a dose of the watery stools.

It works the other way too.  Would you bother taking a sleeping tablet that only had a 54% chance of making you drowsy?

I recommend these medicines should carry tables much like you see on most food packaging outlining the nutritional facts of the product you are buying.

• 97% chance of pain relief.
• 23% chance of upset stomach.
• 3% chance of vomiting and diarrhea.
• 0.001% chance of elephantiasis of the testicles.
• 0.0000001% chance of crying diamonds.

Would you take a headache tablet with the above information on it?

No tags