A paradoxical reaction or paradoxical effect is an effect of medical treatment, usually a drug, opposite to the effect which would normally be expected.
An example of a paradoxical reaction is when a pain relief medication causes an increase in pain. Some sedatives prescribed for adults actually cause hyperactivity in children.
For example, there are serious complications occurring in conjunction with the use of sedatives creating a series of effects in some people, that are the total opposite of those expected. The paradoxical reactions may consist of depression, with or without suicidal tendencies, phobias, aggressiveness, violent behavior and symptoms sometimes misdiagnosed as psychosis.
Read more about Paradoxical Reaction: Benzodiazepines, Barbiturates, Antipsychotics, Antidepressants, Antibiotics
Famous quotes containing the words paradoxical and/or reaction:
“So far as we are human, what we do must be either evil or good: so far as we do evil or good, we are human: and it is better, in a paradoxical way, to do evil than to do nothing: at least we exist.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“In contrast to revenge, which is the natural, automatic reaction to transgression and which, because of the irreversibility of the action process can be expected and even calculated, the act of forgiving can never be predicted; it is the only reaction that acts in an unexpected way and thus retains, though being a reaction, something of the original character of action.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)