Aciphex: Side Effects I Had with this Anti-Ulcer Drug

For those of you who may not be aware, Aciphex is an anti-ulcer drug marketed by Janssen-Cilag and used to treat Gastric Reflux Disease and similar disorders.

Having suffered from Gastric Reflux Disease and a Hiatal hernia since 1993, I have a great deal of personal experience with several medications for the treatment of this sort of condition. Some work, some do not, and some are, well, somewhere in between.

I personally took Aciphex, or its generic Rabeprazole, for three years before my doctor switched me to a different medication. I found it to be generally effective in the treatment of my Gastric Reflux Disease (GRD). However Aciphex was not without several side effects.

During the time in which I was taking Aciphex one of the side effects I experienced was increased sleeplessness. For a long time I did not connect my lack of sleep with the medication. Frankly, it was not until three years later that I happened to mention it to my doctor and he pointed out that it could be a side effect which I was experiencing. In fact, this side effect was one of the primary reasons for my doctors' decision to finally switch me off of Aciphex. I eventually developed sleep Apnea, which, while I cannot attribute this directly to the Aciphex, I have often wondered if the period of increased sleeplessness, which I experienced while taking the medication, might not have been a contributing factor of my sleep Apnea.

I also tended to experience periods of dry mouth while I was taking Aciphex. While not severe, these periods were mildly annoying and left me with a false sense of thirst. Due to the likelihood of one of these dry or "cottonmouth" periods, I found it to be a good idea to always keep bottled water on hand as well as a pack of lifesavers or other hard candy as I found this to give me temporary relief.

Another Aciphex side effect of which I was aware were sudden, acute headaches. These headaches began about three weeks after I began taking the Aciphex and stopped shortly after I was switched to another medication three years later. At the time, I thought the headaches were caused by the lack of sleep from the sleeplessness. I was able to counter the headaches with over the counter headache medicines.

In the end I was rather relieved to change to another medication. While it was effective on the symptoms of my Gastric Reflux Disease, I found the Aciphex side effects to not be worth the trade off, particularly when newer medications came on the market which did not have these side effects for me.

That said, I realize that not everyone suffered the same side effects that I did. Indeed, over the years, at my doctors' office, I spoke with other patients who had no side effects and who continued to take Aciphex and who were quite happy with their results. I can only speak for my personal side effects.