Celexa

[Irishonly]

Has anyone you know suffered from Serotinim Syndrome? My daughter is very ill and may not be able to complete her senior year. She was taking a low dose of Celexa for depression and this past week she has been to urgent care twice. The first time she was transported by ambulance to the emergency room and it was within walking distance. She has had violent tremors which look like seizures daily for the past week. We are able to control them now but she can't go anywhere. We have been told it only happens when someone over doses but my daughter didn't. We are told it's unheard of to happen on the dose she is on but it did. I was wondering if anyone knew of other cases.

[Droopy]

1. I don't know about Celexa

But if the side effects are that bad I'd take her off of it and try something else. There are many drugs available to treat depression. If her psychiatrist is not receptive to her trying something else after you've told him/her what's going on then get a different psychiatrist.

[Irishonly]

2. She's on no medication now

and won't be. She can't even take some over the counter medications for colds now. We were about ready to go off because she had shown so much improvement. We have been dealing with tremors, violent enough to look like seizures for a week now. She's at home and the district is going to send a teacher so she will be able to graduate with her class. She has a long recovery to face now. I would never take her to the same psychiatrist again. He seemed to be more worried about being sued than her symptoms-but then again I am one scared, upset mom.

[DemExpat]

3. So she had been on Celexa for awhile before the tremors struck?

And she showed much improvement before these attacks?

Since your daughter had shown such improvement with medication, perhaps another one would help her further?

I can surely empathize with you with your daughter, and can only encourage you to take it day by day in the most positive way possible. Having her graduate with extra help from school is most important at this time, if your daughter is able to concentrate enough.

My experience with myself and my daughter:
After highschool graduation my daughter also entered a period where she was feeling labile, anxious, insecure and experiencing panic attacks in public.
Since I have had mostly negative reactions to any psychopharmaceuticals for my problems, I did not want her to try this route without trying others, so I had her consult a psychiatric nurse who was trained in breathing and relaxation techniques for people with anxiety, panic and depression. This was just what she needed, as it provided her with the tools to handle her discomfort and stress in a very positive way. Nipping it in the bud, as it were, before it all became an ingrained behavior and emotional response. She is now 25 years old, graduated from university and has a great job in her field for a year and a half now. She has learned to listen to herself and take care of things before they get out of hand,(getting more rest, eating well, etc.) and this early knowledge she has acquired is something I am super grateful for, as I missed out on over a full decade of my young adult life from mental health problems and, from my experience, failed medication treatments.

Just voicing my experiences and thoughts/feelings to let you know that many here can understand how upsetting this is to you and your daughter.

:hug:

DemEx

[Irishonly]

4. Thank you

She had been given 10mg of Celexa in the fall. Right after she got mono so the doctor did not want to increase the dosage. In January she was slowly moved to 30mg a day and she was showing improvement.

My daughter has been plagued with tremors since she was in 7th grade. I think almost every test imaginable has been given to her and no one could ever explain why. Af first we thought the tremors were precursors to migraines but she rarely has a migraine now and still has tremors. At times she would complain that it was hard to breathe. She was given the Celexa for anxiety. We also knew she was depressed and she has been seeing a therapist for quite a while. There has been an ungodly amount of deaths of people she loved dearly in her life and most have been cancer related. Her uncle committed suicide and she has watched her father's mental health go downhill. He receives disability for his PTSD.

On Monday, the 17thy, her tremors were so bad she could hardly stand. She was taken to the doctor and he referred her for a MRI. HMOs are a pain, as most people know. There are hoops you have to jump through and although her PSP is wonderful, it can still take more time than what I would like.

On Wednesday after dinner she started jerking violently and she was taken to urgent care. The doctor at urgent care took one look at her and said she needed to be seen in emergency. Kaiser is a huge medical facility but the emergency room is one building over from urgent care. They would not let us take her and instead called an ambulance. She was given 10mg of Lorazepam and iced down because of fever. We were told to make sure she saw her PCP and the ER doctor seemed to be glad she was seeing her psychiatrist and having a MRI.

On Friday as we were taking her to her doctor appointment and the violent jerking started again. She had been taking the Lorazepam as directed. I asked the medical assistant to get her into a room ASAP. People were staring and she was aware of it, getting more upset and jerking worse. We were there for two hours. Her doctor gave her a shot of valium. After dinner the jerking started again and we were afraid to give her any more medication because we were afraid of an over dose so we went to urgent care again. She was given another shot of valium and we were told that is she started having difficulty breathing to call 911 and let them assess her.

Saturday we had to have lab work repeated. They has told us in ER she was significantly anemic. Her doctor thought a mistake had been made and it had. He had said if the lab work was correct she would have lost almost four pints of blood in a month. My daughter had one to two episodes of the seizures a day until yesterday.

Monday we took her to see the psychiatrist and as I said before he was having problems with her illness. He said he had never heard of serotinon syndrome happening with the dosage he had prescribed and suggested it may be tumors in her digestive track. My daughter heard tumor and shut off. She is very fair skinned and has always turned red when she is hot and that seems to be the basis for his question. Her PCP is furious that he would have said something like that to us.

She had been doing so much better. The valium works as a downer for her and she thinks none of her friends care about her. We keep talking to her and she gets calmed down but some idiot told her her problems would go away if she went in the military and got discipline. Many of the kids in her graduating class are very self centered and don't have time for anyone sick. She has commented on the lack of concern her peers show to others.

My daughter has seen a therapist that has worked with her on retraining her brain and it was doing wonders. Right now she is very scattered and we are trying as best we can to use the techniques given to her. She will hopefully start college in the fall and we tell her life will get better and she believes us.

[Irishonly]

5. Much has happened

My daughter has not had a seizure for one week today. She was placed on independent study to complete high school. The seizures took a physical and emotional toll on her. Until the cause is found for the excessive amount of serotinum she will not be on any medication. She is scattered and talks a lot to keep things straight in her mind. She had a MRI last week and tomorrow she has extensive lab work done. They will also be doing a cancer screening. I can't tell you how thankful I am the seizures have stopped. She admitted she was afraid she was going to die and the experience has changed her.