Cargando…

What are side effects?

Side effects are ubiquitous in medicine and they often play a role in treatment decisions for patients and clinicians alike. Philosophers and health researchers often use side effects to illustrate issues with contemporary medical research and practice. However, technical definitions of ‘side effect...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Due, Austin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10006551/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36936702
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13194-023-00519-8
_version_ 1784905321457647616
author Due, Austin
author_facet Due, Austin
author_sort Due, Austin
collection PubMed
description Side effects are ubiquitous in medicine and they often play a role in treatment decisions for patients and clinicians alike. Philosophers and health researchers often use side effects to illustrate issues with contemporary medical research and practice. However, technical definitions of ‘side effect’ differ among health authorities. Thus, determining the side effects of an intervention can differ depending on whose definition we assume. Here I review some of the common definitions of side effect and highlight their issues. In response, I offer an account of side effects as jointly (i) unintended and (ii) effects due to the causal capacities or invariances of an intervention. I discuss (i) by examining the intentions or reasons behind therapeutic interventions, and I discuss (ii) by appealing to a manipulationist model of causation. The analysis here highlights that side effects are conceptually distinct from related outcomes like adverse events, adverse drug reactions, and placebo effects. The analysis also allows for reflection on the utility of ‘side effect’ as a technical term in medical research and practice.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10006551
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Springer Netherlands
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-100065512023-03-13 What are side effects? Due, Austin Eur J Philos Sci Paper in the Philosophy of the Biomedical Sciences Side effects are ubiquitous in medicine and they often play a role in treatment decisions for patients and clinicians alike. Philosophers and health researchers often use side effects to illustrate issues with contemporary medical research and practice. However, technical definitions of ‘side effect’ differ among health authorities. Thus, determining the side effects of an intervention can differ depending on whose definition we assume. Here I review some of the common definitions of side effect and highlight their issues. In response, I offer an account of side effects as jointly (i) unintended and (ii) effects due to the causal capacities or invariances of an intervention. I discuss (i) by examining the intentions or reasons behind therapeutic interventions, and I discuss (ii) by appealing to a manipulationist model of causation. The analysis here highlights that side effects are conceptually distinct from related outcomes like adverse events, adverse drug reactions, and placebo effects. The analysis also allows for reflection on the utility of ‘side effect’ as a technical term in medical research and practice. Springer Netherlands 2023-03-11 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC10006551/ /pubmed/36936702 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13194-023-00519-8 Text en © Springer Nature B.V. 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Paper in the Philosophy of the Biomedical Sciences
Due, Austin
What are side effects?
title What are side effects?
title_full What are side effects?
title_fullStr What are side effects?
title_full_unstemmed What are side effects?
title_short What are side effects?
title_sort what are side effects?
topic Paper in the Philosophy of the Biomedical Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10006551/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36936702
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13194-023-00519-8
work_keys_str_mv AT dueaustin whataresideeffects