Any medicine can cause some sort of side effect, even those bought in a supermarket. Some people will have a side effect with any medicine, where another person will not have any issues with any of them. You are more likely to get side effects if you do not take the medicine correctly.
If you do experience a side effect, it will usually not be serious and tends to disappear after taking the medicine a little while. If you are unsure you should speak to a pharmacist.
Most patient information leaflets now list the known side effects, and class them as:
- very common (more than 1 in 10 people are affected)
- common (between 1 in 10 and 1 in 100 people are affected)
- uncommon (between 1 in 100 and 1 in 1,000 people are affected)
- rare (between 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 10,000 people are affected)
- very rare (fewer than 1 in 10,000 people are affected)
You should tell your pharmacist or your doctor if you think you are affected by any of them – especially if it is one that is considered rare or very rare.