...Not many have heard of Serotonin Syndrome ...
I don’t think I had until last month when I was researching Cymbalta after one of my doctors prescribed it for my nerve pain.
After a few days of indecision I finally started taking it and thankfully I have not had too many bad side effects.. yet. The most annoying one that happens and I looked up to see if it was a known issue is excessive yawning.
I have to look up all medicine I get prescribed after the horror of Topamax that I took mid-July to mid-August 2011, and weigh the risks. To this day I have side effects that I can directly link back to Topamax.
I would rather get prescribed a strong pain killer because I know the side effects and I know I’m not the type to get addicted. But thanks to the pill heads a person with legit pain gets screwed.
My PCP keeps suggesting off label use of drugs for my nerve pain and I have nixed most of them. The Cymbalta was the neurologist’s idea so I am giving it a few months but keep alert for new problems. Just hoping it doesn’t screw up my A1c results like the other meds did.
To make a long story short my 4'10" wife who is white thought she was Tess on Touched by an Angel. Two shrinks, two ER doctors and two interns were clueless. They were clueless even after they had pulled her off all the meds but Xanax and then relapsed within an hour of taking the meds a couple days later when she was back to normal. Within an hour she was Tess again.
I left the hospital to go get some rest and my dad stayed there. I stopped by the Chapel on my way out then went home. I was dead tired but went on line. I went to a search engine and typed in Zoloft +Trazodone +Adverse reaction and there it was. Oh when GOD answers He answers :>} The site I found was an article written by that hospitals Pharmacology Professor.
I rushed back to the hospital I was 99% sure now of what was happening. I told the floor supervisor to contact the doctor. She refused and said he makes rounds tomorrow morning. I said OK then you will not give her any medications but Ativan or Xanax. Next morning he walked in madder than a wet hen and asked why I rescinded his orders. I showed him the article he said that's pure rubbish. I said OK now read the authors name do you recognize it? His mind changed real fast.
It's a rare adverse reaction and can be headed off early if patient, family, and doctors are knowledgeable of it.
Some doctors freak when I say I'm on Xanax and I've taken it for 20 years and my wife has for 29 years. We both have neurological damage which it treats. We both take low but consistent dosages. Only one shrink wanted to write the Xanax and he knew what I had. The rest insisted I take antidepressants.
20 years ago doctors had not quite connected the dots between Vestibular Processing Disorders and Anxiety Disorder. No pill as such is ever magic. Usually meds treat symptoms and in the case of Psychiatrist they usually aren't interested in determining an actual illness but rather just treat symptoms.