Effect of medicines
 

When should side effects of medicine be considered?

Considered
 

Doing the process to determine eligibility for benefits, I came across this interesting tidbit, ssr 96-7, which governs the weight given to side effects of medication.

The ALJ should factor the side effects of your meds (mine did), but is that your question or are you asking it in relation to SSR 96-7p?

It is your responsibility to have your doctors document what your side effects are. Don't expect the ALJ to look at your list of meds and figure it out on her own.

Side effects
 

To date, no ALJ I've appeared before has ever addressed that.

1) Have your doctors addressed the severity of your side effects in your RFCs or in a letter? (This is just one small piece of the larger puzzle by the way. Without having access to your file it's impossible to say how important this evidence is. You could certainly ask your attorney if the evidence in your file is sufficient regarding the extent of the side effects.)

2) If the ALJ is using the 5 step process to determine if you qualify for SSDI, then he STOPS once he determines that you've not passed the requirements of that step. It was my impression, that in your prior ALJ hearings, things didn't progress very far.

3) If your new ALJ does progress further into the process, she should have more questions for you. (This is why I and others keep trying to encourage you to treat this new hearing as an opportunity, instead of being resentful that you have to go back.) Don't be surprised if she delves into many areas that have not been addressed before. --This is also why it would be a good idea to carefully review the SSDfacts section about the various questions ALJs ask.

It is important to write out the full names even if your prescriptions are listed with common abbreviations--just because a doctor or pharmacist would immediately recognize the name, don't assume an ALJ will. If not widely recognizable by name, a quick explanation of it's purpose might be helpful in some cases.

The side effects that YOU experience that limit your ability to work. So that fact that a medication may have a side effect (and most do) it doesn't mean that you will experience that side effect in any significant manner.

side effects
 

My father was put on a course of Flagyl for treatment of diverticulitis. He had probably 5 IV doses of this medication over 3 days time and 1 oral dose of it over the weekend following the Wednesday - Friday hospital admission; and, on Monday, he could not even stand up (Dec. 10th, 2012). He has not been the same since that fateful day. Has anyone else out there experienced this side effect (which, at this point, I would dare to say permanent) from having taken this medication???? He has what looks to be full blown Parkinson's, stage 5. He cannot stand up on his own, is no longer able to take steps, wiggles and jiggles on a regular basis, exhibits "retropulsion" also on a regular basis. Life is a never ending major challenge for him now.
It would be interesting to know if anyone else out there has had a similar experience with that particular drug...

You will probably find more posts regarding flagyl if you use the forum search feature.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/search.php

Edited to add:

Found this one from mrsD regarding Peripheral Neuropathy in Parkinson's Disease forum
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post959404-37.html

There are more posts/threads if you use "flagyl" as keyword in the search feature.

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