{"id":348,"date":"2021-11-01T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/new\/guides\/?page_id=348"},"modified":"2021-11-17T22:42:17","modified_gmt":"2021-11-17T22:42:17","slug":"how-side-effects-are-graded","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/side\/how-side-effects-are-graded","title":{"rendered":"How side effects are graded"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In research studies, side effects are graded from 1 to 4. Grade 1 is very mild and grade 4 is very serious.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>How side effects are discovered<\/h2>\n<p>Most information about the risk of side effects comes from research studies.\u00a0This is why it is important to report all side effects if you take part in a study.<\/p>\n<p>Drug studies collect information about:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>All potential side effects.<\/li>\n<li>How often side effects occur.<\/li>\n<li>How serious they are.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But studies use small numbers of people for relatively short periods. So sometimes rare side effects are only discovered after a drug is approved and has been widely used for many years.<\/p>\n<p>In studies, each side effect is graded from 1 to 4. Grade 1 is mild and grade 4 is serious, life threatening or requiring hospitalisation.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing about these grades can help understand information about each drug.<\/p>\n<h2>Side effect grades<\/h2>\n<p><strong>GRADE 1 (Mild)<\/strong><br \/>\nTransient (goes away after a short time) or mild discomfort; no limitation in activity; no medical intervention\/therapy required.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GRADE 2 (Moderate)<\/strong><br \/>\nYour daily activity is affected mild to moderately \u2013 some assistance might be needed; no or minimal medical intervention\/therapy required.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GRADE 3 (Severe)<\/strong><br \/>\nYour daily activity is markedly reduced \u2013 some assistance usually required; medical intervention\/therapy required, hospitalisation or hospice care possible.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GRADE 4 (Potentially life threatening)<\/strong><br \/>\nExtreme limitation to daily activity, significant assistance required; significant medical intervention\/therapy, hospitalisation or hospice care very likely.<\/p>\n<h2>Side effects and grades table<\/h2>\n<p>An indication of grading (based on US NIH Division of AIDS) is shown below together with specific details for some of the most common side effects.<\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" summary=\"Side effects graded\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th>Side effect<\/th>\n<th>Grade 1<\/th>\n<th>Grade 2<\/th>\n<th>Grade 3<\/th>\n<th>Grade 4<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"sixteen\">Diarrhoea<\/td>\n<td class=\"twenty\">3\u20134 loose stools a day <strong>or<\/strong> mild diarrhoea lasting less than one week<\/td>\n<td class=\"twenty\">5\u20137 loose stool a day <strong>or<\/strong> diarrhoea lasting more than one week<\/td>\n<td class=\"twenty\">Bloody diarrhoea\u00a0 over 7 loose stools a day <strong>or<\/strong> needing IV treatment <strong>or<\/strong> feeling dizzy when standing<\/td>\n<td class=\"twenty\">Hospitalisation required (also possible for grade 3)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Fatigue<\/td>\n<td>Normal activity reduced by less than 25%<\/td>\n<td>Normal activity reduced by reduced by 25-50%<\/td>\n<td>Normal activity reduced by over 50% \u2013 cannot work<\/td>\n<td>Unable to care for yourself<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Liver toxicity: AST or ALT levels<\/td>\n<td>1.25\u20132.5 x Upper Limit of Normal<\/td>\n<td>2.5\u20135.0 x ULN<\/td>\n<td>5.0\u20137.5 x ULN<\/td>\n<td>More than 7.5 x ULN<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mood disturbance<\/td>\n<td>Mild anxiety, able to continue daily tasks<\/td>\n<td>Moderate anxiety\/disturbance, interfering with ability to work, etc<\/td>\n<td>Severe mood changes requiring medical treatment Unable to work<\/td>\n<td>Acute psychosis, suicidal thoughts<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Nausea<\/td>\n<td>Mild <strong>or<\/strong> transient reasonable food intake<\/td>\n<td>Moderate discomfort <strong>or<\/strong> intake decreased for less than 3 days<\/td>\n<td>Severe discomfort <strong>or<\/strong> minimal food intake for more than 3 days<\/td>\n<td>Hospitalisation required<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Rash<\/td>\n<td>Redness or itchy skin on part or whole body<\/td>\n<td>Rash that breaks skin, hard or soft pimples <strong>or<\/strong> light peeling\/scaling<\/td>\n<td>Blistering, open ulcers, wet peeling, serious rash over large areas<\/td>\n<td>Severe rash, Stevens-Johnson syndrome. Severe broken skin, etc<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Vomiting<\/td>\n<td>2\u20133 episodes a day <strong>or<\/strong> mild vomiting for less than one week<\/td>\n<td>4\u20135 episodes a day <strong>or<\/strong> mild vomiting for more than one week<\/td>\n<td>Severe vomiting of all food and fluids over 24 hours needing IV treatment <strong>or<\/strong> feeling dizzy when standing<\/td>\n<td>Hospitalisation for IV treatment (possibly also for grade 3)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In research studies, side effects are graded from 1 to 4. Grade 1 is very mild and grade 4 is very serious. How side effects are discovered Most information about the risk of side effects comes from research studies.\u00a0This is &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":291,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-guides.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-348","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/348\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}