Bydureon Side Effects: Weekly injection for type 2 diabetes drug Bydureon gets FDA nod, but with many constraints. The most common side effects are mild to moderate. Nausea, occurring at the start of the treatment and decreasing over time. Vomiting, diarrhea, constipation. Headache, low blood sugar levels. Itching at the site of the injection.

Meanwhile, four main studies lasting six months or more and involving 1,525 type 2 diabetes patients showed that the once-a-week diabetes injection effectively lowered sugar levels in the bloodstream.

Cited by the European Union’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), those findings prompted the European Medicines Agency, EU’s health regulator, to approve early last year, in April 2011, Bydureon, the new diabetes injection.

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Prozac Pregnancy Side Effects: It may cause pulmonary hypertension in babies: Pregnant women who are depressed may want to weigh the benefits of taking antidepressants against the possible, although inconclusive, risks to their developing fetuses.

Findings of a recent Nordic study published in the British Medical Journal found that newborn babies of women who take certain antidepressants are more likely to have pulmonary hypertension—or dangerously high blood pressure in their lungs.

The condition makes the babies unable to adapt to breathing on their own and can lead to organ failure and brain damage. About 11 percent of newborns diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension—known to doctors as persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN)—will die from it, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

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Ecstasy Side Effects: Long-term Serotonin Loss? Recreational use of Ecstasy, the illegal party drug that produces feelings of euphoria, emotional warmth and connectedness, may cause long-term serotonin loss and other chronic changes in the human brain, scientists say.

“Our study provides some of the strongest evidence to date that the drug causes chronic loss of serotonin in humans,” said Ronald Cowan, MD, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry who led researchers at the Vanderbilt University. Their findings are reported online in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

The neurotransmitter serotonin plays critical roles in regulating mood, appetite, sleep, learning and memory and medical experts believe that low levels are associated with depression.

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Lipitor Side Effects: UTI, Nasal Inflammation, Joint Pain. Heart disease is a leading cause of death in the United States and the world, and having high cholesterol levels in your blood gives you a higher chance of getting it.

But how do you know that you have high blood cholesterol levels, when by itself, that condition poses no signs or symptoms? Without having yourself tested, you may not know that your cholesterol level is too high. And by the time you discover it, the condition may have reached the point where it has to be managed daily, to lessen its impact on your life. At this point, too, daily maintenance doses of drugs can strain your budget considerably.

Thankfully, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Nov. 30 approved the first generic version of the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium tablets).

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Remicade Side Effects. This month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it is approving the use of Remicade (generic name: infliximab) to treat ulcerative colitis (UC) among children aged 6 years old and older “who have had inadequate response to conventional therapy.”

Says Donna Griebel, M.D., director of the Division of Gastroenterology and Inborn Errors Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research:

With the approval of Remicade, children with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis who have not had an adequate response to conventional treatment now have an FDA-approved treatment option. However, there are serious risks associated with its use. Patients and their families should always discuss with their physician the risks and benefits of using a medication before deciding to start treatment.

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