62 replies to this topic

[Somebody]

I was in bed this morning and I was wondering to myself what some of the worst or strangest side effects people on this site have experienced. It can be any type of side effect from any type of drug, I'm just interested in seeing what's happened to some people. You don't have to say what drug you were taking or go into detail, but you can if you want.

The first antidepressant I was put on was Seratraline, and I was fine for the first day. The second day however, I couldn't sleep, I vomited over 40 times, blacked out twice, went blind, my heart beat like I just ran a mile and it beat so hard that you could see the vein in my neck pulsating. I really thought I was going to die, but I didn't go to the emergency room or anything (I really should have, looking back on that).

As for strange side effects... I can't really think of any at the moment, maybe I'll remember something later.

[netsavy006]

The worst side effect came from the medication Abilify. It caused trouble swallowing, so I couldn't eat full meals and I lost over 30 pounds on it. (I went from 150lbs to 120lbs). I had to ultimately stop it and go inpatient because stopping it caused me to become suicidal.

[melissaw72]

I was taking reglan for something and I produced lots of breast milk all of a sudden (I was not pregnant) because of it. Because it raised the prolactin levels, so much that my neuro at the time thought I might have a tumor on/in my in brain called a prolactinoma. Had an MRI with dye and everything so she could see every part of my brain.

ETA: grammar mistakes

Edited by melissaw72, 13 October 2012 - 09:36 PM.

[DennInDetroit]

Well, I am such a newbie to this I don't have enough experience. But the hospital pdoc gave me a very low dose of seroquel, 25 mgs, to help me sleep. Well, I must be very sensitive, 25 mgs knocked me out like a dart gun on a charging rhino. My dog had to go out in the middle of the night the first night, and I could not see straight, everything was foggy and spinning, and I had to hold onto things to walk/stagger. It was very unpleasant.

[TOT]

.

Edited by TOT, 19 March 2013 - 03:14 PM.

[in_media_res]

Worst is tinnitus, from 3 years on wellbutrin and lexapro. Those meds didn't do anything much for mood, but have left me with a permanent ringing sound in each ear. A recent attempt at lamotrigine seems to have made it worse -- it's subjective, so hard to tell. But it does a lot for my mood -- none of it good.

The weight gain I've managed to mostly eliminate. Have another 20-30 pounds to go, having lost 90.

[Mirazh]

DennInDetroit, it's my understanding that such a reaction to low-dose Seroquel is actually really common.

I was prescribed a similar dose for a week, to help me sleep, the emergency psych said. Well it didn't touch my sleep, and my sister informed me that my irritability increased noticibly after I started it. So.

Lamictal gave me a rash, literally all over my body. But no itchiness or anything. The docs said to stop it, rash went away right quick.

Lots of stress + abusive "friend" + Lexapro resulted in a pretty bad rage episode.

I think only my Lamictal rash qualifies as an SE.

[malachite]

Topamax gave me Acute Closed Angle Glaucoma; I could have gone blind had I not gone to the ER when I did. That was the worst effect I've had. The strangest one was on Wellbutrin. I hallucinated an embroidered Minnie Mouse pillow in great detail. I had never seen anything like it before, and that I hallucinated something so mundane was, I am sure, a good thing. What's interesting is I can still see with my mind's eye that exact pillow.

Edited by malachite, 13 October 2012 - 10:46 PM.

[mambo_kT]

When I was taking 25-50mg of seroquel at night I also had a rather unpleasant experience. One night I took it then made the mistake of waiting a bit before my last smoke of the night. I almost blacked out outside and barely made it into my apartment. I slept on the floor with my front door open all night. ...But that was when I was drinking, so the beer was probably a contributing factor.

Also, Abilify makes me a little off balance. I've gotten kind of used to bumping into walls, especially when I turn corners haha

Edited by mambo_kT, 13 October 2012 - 10:54 PM.

[Cade]

Weirdest - Gaining a lot of weight on Wellbutrin. It also raised my anxiety levels with no symptom relief, but the weight gain is apparently far more unusual, especially over 25% of starting weight.
Worst - The nausea on Strattera. It was like having a bad case of stomach flu. The only things that would stay down were lukewarm Gatorade and water, and those only if I was lying down and not moving much.

[crtclms]

The worse side effect was that Zonegran gave me renal tubular acidosis (kidney disease). 8 years later, my kidneys have almost returned to normal, just in time to try lithium.

Clonezapam made me have rages two hours after I took it. So that was annoying, because I was already mixed as hell.

Atenolol gave me bruxism, which is an "unusual" side effect.

[cfranco92]

Invenga caused me to have severe psychosis and cyclical vomiting even though I was prescribed it for psychosis.

Zyprexa increased my prolactin, causing me to stop my period for 16 months and to lactate. When I changed to navane it made it worse. Once I got on seroquel, my prolactin level returned to level and I had my menstruation again and no lactation.

When I was diagnosed for just bipolar 1 and I was taking no medication, my pdoc tried lamictal on me and I had a seizure.

Anti-depressants make me manic.

[rowan77]

Drugs which caused my worst side effects were:

• Zyprexa caused me to go from thin to obese in 4 months.I even ate in my sleep, which was weird! That was 10 years ago and I'm still trying to lose the weight
• Risperdal caused me to lactate +++ which was extremely distressing and embarassing
• Abilify caused extreme agitation and awful akathisia which drove me even more crazy

[thesystemisdown]

I was literally tripping balls in a bad way on tegretol.
Thorazine.. I don't remember anything from the time I was on it, that was 4 months of my life gone.

[Jen78]

My worst was the full body lamictal rash. I had it from head to toe. Got it cleared up then got the rash off of depikote :/

[CrankyMe]

Cymbalta gave me oily, orange diarrhea within 30 minutes of eating any meal. I stayed on it for 2 months, hoping the side effect would go away because it actually helped with my depression. I lost 40 lbs and was malnourished (although still overweight).

Clonazepam gave me hiccups, randomly, at any time, even in sleep. I actually found it funny. The episodes never lasted very long ,else I may not have found it so amusing. I still take it, but the hiccuping has subsided.

Effexor made me suicidal. This was in its early days, when it was still new.

Edited to add non-psyche med: Benadryl makes me hyper and unable to sleep.

Edited by CrankyMe, 14 October 2012 - 09:41 AM.

[Jen78]

I forgot about cymbalta. It made me not able to pee. Seriously I would go maybe twice a day. Pdoc took me off of it after two weeks

[vandeeje]

Thorazine made me blackout and gave me night terrors.

Depakote made my ankles swell up to the size of grapefruits and made my pupils dilate WAY bad. My neurologist asked me if I had been to the eye doctor earlier.

Zyprexa gave my dystonia in my legs, which I guess doesn't happen much with Zyprexa. It was literally half an hour after I took it I could barely walk.

Lamictal and Cymbalta gave me edema in my legs and made me feel like I was going to fall over when I was sitting.

And worst of all, Latuda gave me neuropathy in my arms, legs, and lower back. Saw several doctors about the pain, had a ton of tests, nothing helped. Then I stopped the Latuda and three weeks later, BAM, all better.

ETA: I forgot about Fanapt. I was peeing every half hour and still retaining water. I had my legs up constantly because they would swell for no reason.

Edited by vandeeje, 14 October 2012 - 03:31 PM.

[gizmo]

I got horrible akathesia on abilify - I literally could not sit down without the aid of 2 mg of Xanax. I fell asleep while cooking at my stove when I took geodon. Zyprexa almost tripled my triglycerides and now I have to take meds for it. One of the most disturbing side effects for me was that I would pee while asleep in bed while on cogentin. We're not talking like once a month - it happened four times in a single week! I got off it pretty fast.

Edited by gizmo, 14 October 2012 - 02:29 PM.