Euphemism
For six decades the pharma world has been a part of my life. My father was a pharmacist. My job for the past dozen+ years has been primarily focused on pharmaceutical marketing. Of course, there was the 70's - but this is not the forum for THAT conversation. And I've benefited tremendously during my recent treatment from the most modern advances of pharmacology. So I've got nothing against big pharma and it's comet tail.
I have however been exposed recently to the semantics of side effects which populate those toilet-paper thin treatises (PI = Product Inserts) and their companion ISI (Important Safety Information) full of information, explanation and documentation of every aspect of an interaction from ingesting the given drug.
What I have come to enjoy the most (yes, once again he is using the word enjoy and chemotherapy in the same thought) has been the way that the authors of these opuses label the most mundane or gross bodily functions (AR = Adverse Reactions) with multi-syllabic terms for things that we know by much simpler words.
Is this done to lesson our fear of the possible side effects? Is this done to increase our fear of the possible side effects? (not sure the logic or value of that strategy - but you never know). Or is this maybe done as a test to see if we are even reading those mini manuscripts mandated for inclusion with each prescription. Regardless of the motivation, I thought exploring a few of the ones that I have come across could be fun (there he goes again - making light of potential Black Box warnings).
Alopecia = hair loss/thinning
Aphthous stomatitis = canker sores
Borborygmi = gurgling in the stomach
Dyspepsia = indigestion (origin of Pepsi-Cola)
Edema = excessive swelling
Erythematous dermititis = red rash
Exogenous hyperadrenocorticalism = steroid puffy face
Flatulence = breaking wind
Orthostatic hypotension = dizzy from standing up too fast
