Has anyone had a bad expierience with Lexapro?!
Question: My husband has been taking 10mg/day for 5 months for treatment of Anxiety (just the symptoms of, he was never diagnosed). Some of the side effects that I have noticed are excessive drinking, lying, severe lethargy, blackouts, memory problems and mood swings. Has this happened to anyone you know? It is causing so many problems in our marriage that he now want to quit cold turkey and I told him that he can't do that. He hasn't taken it for 2 days and is getting worse. I really don't know what to do. I have been telling him to see a mental health professional since his stupid Nurse Practitioner put him on it but he wont. Also the NP that prescribed it to him no longer works at the practice he went to so he has been taking this $%#@ for 5 months unsupervised. Isn't this un-ethical and borderline illegal? I don't know what the pharmacist keeps re-filling the Rx for him.
Answers: My husband has been taking 10mg/day for 5 months for treatment of Anxiety (just the symptoms of, he was never diagnosed). Some of the side effects that I have noticed are excessive drinking, lying, severe lethargy, blackouts, memory problems and mood swings. Has this happened to anyone you know? It is causing so many problems in our marriage that he now want to quit cold turkey and I told him that he can't do that. He hasn't taken it for 2 days and is getting worse. I really don't know what to do. I have been telling him to see a mental health professional since his stupid Nurse Practitioner put him on it but he wont. Also the NP that prescribed it to him no longer works at the practice he went to so he has been taking this $%#@ for 5 months unsupervised. Isn't this un-ethical and borderline illegal? I don't know what the pharmacist keeps re-filling the Rx for him.
The symptoms that you describe aren't usually associated with the conditions for which Lexapro are prescribed; but some of them could be pre-existing symptoms of another condition which are being exacerbated by the medication. ANd in case he didn't read the lable: you shouldn't drink when on Lexapro........period!
Let's face it: if you've been telling him for a while that he needs to go to a mental healther specialist for whatever is going on, you don't think he really relayed what he actually felt/is feeling/fears.......to a nurse....now do you??
I agree, however, that he needs to get to a doctor. It not even neccessarily a "mental" thing. My father in law suffered the same exact symptoms you list above, and it was due to long term hypo-glycemia and sleep apnea. (Low blood sugar type diabetes, and oxegen deprivation to the brain while sleeping....does he snore?? jerk in his sleep?? wake up more tired than when he went to bed??)..... and while going cold turkey off of Lexapro isn't as bad as going off some of the others, it's never a really good idea.
Try to rememember: it's not always the practitioner's fault when prescribing medication: they do the best they can with the information suppled to them by the patient, they only base their drug choice on what they are being told by the patient, and also: before writing a prescription for this type of medication, they always have to run it past their supervising physician, so........that is also who is renewing the medication. When your husband runs out, the drug store simply calls the doctor's office, who, based on the symptoms taken from the patient by the practitioner, etc, etc, etc,......and gets a refill authorization.....
Get him to an internal medicine doctor-preferably a homeopath, instead of a GP or Family Practitioner. The homeopath physicians are usually more willing to look at the body as a whole and treat it as a whole, before simply taking the patients "reported symptoms" and making a diagnosis, or pinpointing it on a "psych" thing....
He's also less likely to resist going to one of these doctors than he is going to a "shrink". So..........tell him that you want both of you to get a complete physical from this "whole body" doctor so that "we" can make sure that "we" are as well as "we" can be. If any of his anxiety is based in feeling blamed for the problems at home, this would be a good, first step at showing him that your intentions weren't to finger point, but that you care about him and are simply trying to take the first steps in supporting the team that is supposed to be there for each other....... in sickness and in health.....
You may not be able to live with him any more could become a dangerous situation. Has a rule of thumb guys very rarely go to doctors even if there almost dead, so getting a guy to a doctor to talk about feels ha like LOL out loud. Guys are to afraid of showing weakness if they show hier feelings or open up.
My boyfriend has been on it for four years. He tried getting off it a couple months ago, and got really weird and depressed after going cold turkey. He was fine the first two days, but after that... He just became really needy. And very angry. He too does not talk to his doctor, and he never talks to any kind of therapist!! I think it's extremely wrong as well! He just calls up his doctor and he fills the prescription over the phone! If it's not illegal, it should be! Anyways, stopping lexapro did not work for him, and he just went fully right back on it. He takes that clonopen drug as well though...however you spell it. :P
I take Lexapro, 20 mg once day at night. I very fortunately don't seem to be having the problems your husband is. My doctor told me to take it at night so I can sleep better. I do have mood swings, but I had those before, they do increase if I miss a dose.
By excessive drinking - do you mean he's thirsty all the time or that he's drinking alcoholic beverages? If he is that could certainly explain alot of those side effects.
I think thats the problem with alot of these drugs is they go unsupervised. I have monthly doctors appts and I also keep a journal so I'm well prepared for my appointments. I do know other people who don't visit their doctor's regularly after being presribed drugs like this, and I totally agree that it's wrong - but I'm not sure it's illegal.
When I first went on Lexapro, I was being taken off another drug (Celexa) - and I took 10mg of Lexapro only. I would think its fine for your husband to stop. Ask your pharmacist tho - and a pharmacist will keep refilling a drug as long as the doctor approves it.
Bottom line - I'd find new care so he can be monitored on his progress.
Good luck.
My son was on this med. for depression for less than a week when he developed more severe mood swings. He later was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, which gets much worse on depression meds. Since he was on just a matter of a week or so when we realized he needed to be off of them he could stop without titrating off. Everything I read on this though does say not to stop cold turkey. I would suggest perhaps calling the dr. that supervised the nurse practitioner that prescribed them for advice? Ultimately he is responsible for her actions I believe. I would think he would want to help not only for ethical reasons but also to avoid possible malpractice suit! He could best advise as to how long the symptoms would last after going off cold turkey. From what I read when my son was on it withdrawal ranged from no to minimal effects to many days of feeling poorly. If he falls into that last category symptom management may be needed. Good Luck to you,