All medications may cause side effects, Drugs.com reports. These vary from the simple types of problems caused by a person's body getting used to the medicine to serious and even life-threatening problems. No matter what kind of medication a person is taking, she may experience a few side effects, or none at all. It really depends upon her body chemistry and there is no way to predict which side effects she will experience.
Nausea and Vomiting
Nausea is a queasy feeling in the person's stomach that may be referred to as an upset stomach or feeling sick to his stomach. It can make him lose his appetite because even the thought of eating food can make the nausea increase to the point of vomiting. Nausea and vomiting are among the most common side effects of many medications. For most drugs, these problems will be temporary and non-serious, while for others they can be indicators of serious medical situations. These kinds of side effects generally occur when his body is becoming used to medicine. Even over-the-counter drugs, such as aspirin and ibuprofen, can cause nausea and vomiting; so can antidepressants, such as venlafaxine, and diabetes medications, such as metformin, the Mayo Clinic reports.
Diarrhea and Constipation
Diarrhea and constipation also typically occur at the beginning of treatment with particular drugs, but can be serious problems with other medicines. Loose stools or hard stools can occur for much the same reasons as nausea and vomiting in that the person's body is becoming accustomed to a drug. With ibuprofen, for example, diarrhea is a serious common side effect, while constipation is classified as non-serious, Drugs.com reports.
Pain
Pain may occur with many medications as well, and depending upon how severe it is and what parts of the body it affects, can be either serious or non-serious. Most often, pain occurs in the muscles or joints, or as general bodily aches. It also may occur as headaches or abdominal pain with some medications. With intravenous medications, pain may occur at the site of injection and not always just because of the needle. Minor pain usually is non-serious, but even a headache can be a major problems depending upon the medication it is associated with. For example, the anti-coagulant medication enoxaparin may induce headaches that are categorized as serious, while other anticoagulants such as clopidogrel and ticlopidine can produce headaches that are not serious.
Arrhythmia
Arrhythmia is the medical term for any fluctuation of a normal heartbeat. It can be tachycardia, which is a faster-than-normal heart rate, bradycardia, a slower-than-normal beat, or an irregular heartbeat. All of these are common side effects of many medications and most often, they are serious. They may occur, for example, with ibuprofen as well as antidepressants such as duloxetine and bronchodilators such as albuterol.
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