Only medications that require, and have received, government approval for use to treat some medical condition are actually required to report possible side effects, and even then only when they are advertised for treatment of the specific condition for which they were approved. "Off schedule" uses by physicians is permitted in some cases, but advertising the drugs for those uses is generally prohibited.

The majority of TV advertsiements you see in which long lists of side effects are reeled off at unintelligible speed, are unregulated "quack medicines" trying to give the impression that they're "real drugs" that have some legitimate use.

In order to receive approval, legitimate medications must submit results of a "trial" in which volunteer(?) subjects have taken the drugs. In most cases the only "known side effects" that are required to be reported are from the report of "symptoms" observed by the test subjects, when the drugs are taken according to the prescription/dispensations of those supervising the test.

Even for "legitimate" drugs, any use other than for the specific conditions for which the drug was tested and approved, or the use of dosages other than as specifically defined/recommended by the manufacturer in the declarations to the approving authorities, may produce other unknown side effects or different expression of the effects listed.

In the US, the "declarations" required for distribution of an "approved" drug can be found in the "Physicians Desk Reference" that should be available at most libraries (or can be purchased from good book stores for about $100/copy the last time I looked.) Your pharmacist is required to be able to provide you a copy of essentially the same information for any drug that pharmacy stocks/dispenses.

The declarations in both of the above sources are the information that is required to be available to patients, when the pharmaceutical is prescribed for an approved condition. Additional information is available as "prescribing information for physicians" at the websites of many manufacturers, in some cases at the NIH (National Institutes of Health) website as "medline" advice, or in some cases at the websites of well known hospitals (especially "teaching" hospitals) like Johns Hopkins et al.

(It does take some research, and a lot of thought, to find the sites that deserve to be trusted.)

NOTHING THAT YOU SEE ON TV or in magazine (or website popup) ads should EVER be considered to be acceptable medical advice, unless confirmed from one of the above, or comparable other, sources.

John