Posted by Sulpicia on June 22, 2001, at 20:40:08
In reply to Zoloft to Paxil - Tics - HELP!!!, posted by Dale on June 22, 2001, at 15:21:56
> Hi--
you wrote:Last night I got myself all scared by doing a bit of research. I found
the book Prozac Backlash , by Joseph Glenmullen, M.D. (Harvard MEdical School),
and started reading it. Wow - it sounded like me. He talked about people being on
SSRIs (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil) and how the medicine masks tics until you start going off of them,
which I was doing. He also said that the neurological disorders such as
facial and whole-body tics can indicate brain damage! He also talked about tardive dyskinesia (tics), and
parkinson-like
movements. This really scared me and just finding this out while going off zoloft and onto paxil
makes me wonder if I should forget the paxil and just continue to go off the zoloft."Tics and tardive dyskinesia are 2 different things, and from the title of the book you read, the last thing
the author is concerned about is your mental health. There is an agenda here, and whether it's anti-psychiatry
in general, like the Scientologists, or some litigeous nonsense, let it go.Tics are transient involuntary movements -- if they remain, both vocal and motor, for at least 1 year
you are diagnosed with Tourettes Syndrome. Onset is at or around andrarche -- no adult onset.
Tardive dyskinesia is a movement disorder [see the WeMove web site, best movement disorder site ever] and
it's a real *pet* of anti-med types because it was a major side effect of the first generation of anti-psychotics
like haldol.In the new anti-psychotics and SSRIs, TD is extremely, extremely rare. It commonly happens after you've been on a med for several years.
And as rare as it is, it's even more extremely rare that it happens while lowering the dose or stopping a med.
Folks with an agenda latch onto this tiny, and
questionable number of patients to raise an unwarranted alarm about psych meds in general. Go and learn a bit about it to
make yourself feel a bit better.I can't tell whether you're experiencing TD or not, but strange sensations can accompany med cessations.
In principle I dislike GP's dealing with AD meds and I can't understand why he lowered your dose to a sub-theraputic
range. If he wanted to see if you would relapse he could have suggested you stop and see -- the dosing strategy seems to
be odd.
Can you have a pdoc supervise or consult as you move onto paxil, and just to reassure you about the twitches? And it's
probably rather important that you see a specialist because you've demonstrated that you still need the med. A pdoc
is the one who can help you evaluate maintainance therapy.As for the tardive dyskinesia being an indication of brain damage, since it virtually always stops when the SSRI
is withdrawn, how accurate do you suppose this doc's claim is?Feel better soon,
poster:Sulpicia
thread:67499
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010618/msgs/67529.html