Coping with nausea

January 2007     View PDF     En español

Switching or stopping therapy

Sometimes people experiencing serious side effects—like prolonged nausea—will switch some of their anti-HIV drugs to improve their quality of life, even though the drugs controlled HIV well. This is one way to deal with side effects linked to a particular drug.

Switching a drug solely because of side effects may also save that drug as a future treatment option. In fact, side effects that you experience with a drug at one time may not occur again if or when you try that drug again in the future.

However, it is dangerous to simply stop taking one drug in your regimen, to take it only periodically or to reduce the dose without talking to your doctor and pharmacist. This can do more harm than good as it may lead to drug resistance, making that drug—and perhaps others like it—less useful for you now and in the future.