posted
My 13 year old daughter has had lyme and has been treated by LLMD for many years. One of her worst symptoms was anxiety. She also had knee and foot pain, stomach problems and exhaustion(stemming from anxiety). After much deliberation she was put on prozac. She felt wonderful. After being on it for about 7 months she is now not feeling at all herself.I'm not sure if this was gradually getting worse but it is obviously bad this past week. She stopped antibiotics in June after having no knee pain, foot pain etc, for 2 months. She started modified Cowden at that time. This past week she has been having bouts of anger which is not like her and she feels completely out of sorts. She says she feels psychotic, manic, not herself. It is worse in the afternoon which is when she originally had the worst anxiety. She feels this is from the prozac and we are beginning to wean her off it. The problem I'm having is not knowing if this is a lyme rage and she should be back on antibiotics or if it is from the prozac. She is not having knee/foot pain. Has anyone had a similar problem? Thank you. Karen
Posts: 82 | From east hampton ny | Registered: Jun 2006
| IP: Logged |
Cass A
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 11134
posted
Yes, Prozac and trying to get off of it can definitely, definitely have bad emotional effects!!
I would personally recommend LOTS of B Complex and B 1, for starters.
The book, "Your Drug May Be Your Problem," has a discontinuation protocol in it. It's by an MD who has had lots of experience getting people off psychotropic drugs. Forgot his name at the moment. Sorry.
Hope this helps!
Best,
Cass A
Posts: 1245 | From Thousand Oaks, CA | Registered: Feb 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
The problem with SSRI's is that if the diet does not provide the necessary amino acids to make serotonin then eventually they quit working because there is not enough serotonin to make the drug work.
In the presence of brain inflammation the body converts tryptophan (precursor to serotonin) into quinolinic acid which is a neurotoxin. For this reason many Lymies do not do well on SSRI's. Buhner in the Healing Lyme book discusses a way around this problem -- take Resveratrol to block the alternate pathway reaction.
Hubby can take B6 or p5p (activated B6) plus l-tryptophan if needed for sleep as long as he also takes resveratrol. Otherwise he used to be able to get to sleep, but would wake up with seizure-like episodes and/or tremors if he took B6 or p5p. He did have bloodwork done once showing elevated quinolinic acid and metabolites from conversion of serotonin.
If you take additional B6 or any other B vitamin singly then you also need to take a B complex supplement. The body does not store B vitamins except for B12 -- the others are water soluble and get flushed out quickly.
This is not medical advice, just my opinion based on hubby's experiences.
Bea Seibert
Posts: 7306 | From Martinsville,VA,USA | Registered: Oct 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Thank you. Doctors feel if it was from the prozac she would have had trouble before now but she really feels its from the prozac. Heading for the health food store and bookstore.
Posts: 82 | From east hampton ny | Registered: Jun 2006
| IP: Logged |
losferwrds
Unregistered
posted
Luckily Prozac has a super long half life so that should help with the withdrawal, please google prozac withdrawal and prozac taper shedules, the drug companies have most physcians brainwashed that SSRIs are easy to get off and taper shedules recommened are very aggresive, and cause people to get really sick, its a small %, around 20%, that get it super bad, but I would be willing to bet that the people that have the most problems are sick with something else like lyme
I am in the process of going off 20mgs of paxil, after several failed tapers (TOO FAST), and ending up bed ridden for week with naseau, chills, nonstop migraines, massive anxiety, I finally went on a 1mg a month taper, I am in month 17, so its taking me 20 months to get of PAXIL, not fun and this last 3mgs is as tough as the first 17 if not tougher. Crazy Drug to get off of.
IP: Logged |
posted
i was on prozac for 3 years pre-lyme....it helped me but then i started getting weird things going on. from what i read and reseacrhed your body tends to want more and when that happens you effectivly are having withdrawals..
my symptoms were more pyshical than mental however. once i got off i was fine ..but it takes weeks.
Dave
-------------------- On my journey to wellness - One day at a time. Posts: 989 | From NJ | Registered: Sep 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
When my daughter raised her dose of prozac to help with emerging OCD symptoms, she became depressed -unmotivated, flat. We dropped her dose back down and ultimately weaned her off prozac to a natural product called Serotone, which is supposed to support the body's own production of serotonin. That might have worked IF she had taken it as carefully as she did the prozac! But, she didn't. The result was disastrous! Over a period of about 6 months, we saw her OCD symptoms and overall agitation escalate, with the past month being at warp speed and out of control!
What I am starting to realize, and Bea, I hope you will share more of what you learned with us, is that it is the connection between and among all the neurotransmitters that affect our moods. I stumbled upon some interesting new studies on glutamate, for example. They have recently found evidence via MRI's that the glutamatergic function in OCD patients shows abnormalities. They are finding that NAC (N-acetyl cysteine) may modulate the glutamate production. Yale has a study in progress supplementing SSRI with NAC to reduce OCD symptoms.
Before you give up on prozac, talk to your doctor about natural supplementation, mentioning the vitamins and amino acids that Bea brought up, and see if you can come up with a plan.
I wish there was a simple, one-size-fits-all protocol for some aspect of this lyme complex, but I sure haven't found it yet.
Bea, I would love to hear more about your experiences. I know you and your hubby have been through a lot.
Posts: 422 | From Herndon, Virginia | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
My daughter was on 20mg and the last 2 days took 10mg. When I looked it up online it seems maybe we should have gone slower but I don't think we should go back up. I was told 10mg the 1st week,5mg the 2nd week,every other day the next week. I'm going to opt for slower here on in ending with crumbs of the pill. Thank you for all your advise. Karen
Posts: 82 | From east hampton ny | Registered: Jun 2006
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/