Posted by PeterJ on June 11, 2000, at 3:04:01
Has anyone experienced akinesia (slowness or absence of
movment) as a result of SSRIs.I am currently taking Celexa (citalopram). I was doing
all right until the third week, when we raised the dose
to 20mg. At that point I experienced difficulty
in moving. It was hard for me to get moving and my
movements felt abnormally slowed. I would spend up to
an hour or two at a time sitting almost stock-still
in my chair. When I was able to move it took effort
and I would do so slowly and stiffly.I have continued the medication in hope this would pass.
It is getting a bit better--or I wouldn't be able to
type this post--but I still feel significantly
slowed and stiff two weeks later.This is different from sedation or fatigue or
depression. It's definitely a slowed down feeling.
My limbs feel stiff and slow. My mind is also a bit
slowed, but it is relatively clear and not sedated.
There is no tremor, although there are sometimes
brief periods of restlessness.I have seen reports of akinesia in Parkinsons patients
given SSRIs, but I don't have Parkinsons.I experienced a similar effect on an MAOI and on
trazodone. In the case of trazodone the onset also
occurred suddenly at three weeks. What is most
worrying is that with these drugs, especially trazodone,
it took a long time for the effect to go away even
after I stopped the drug. It was at least two months
before I was back to normal.The only other SSRI I have tried was fluoxetine, and
I was never able to reach a therapeutic dose due
to severe agitation on 1mg a day.Biochemically I think I am dealing with a serotonergic
inhibition of dopamine function in the basal ganglia
mediated via 5HT2 receptors.
The 3 week delay is probably due to the time needed to
down regulate auto-inhibitory 5-HT1A receptors.I would like to try this medication for a full 6 to
8 weeks or more, but the onset of this effect is rather
worrying.I will be discussing with my doctor whether it is worth
continuing this drug. We had high hopes for it, so
I don't want to give up, but this seems like a serious
side effect.What I'd like to ask the Babble community is, have
any of you experienced this kind of side effect on
Celexa or any other SSRI? What was the outcome?Thank you,
Peter
poster:PeterJ
thread:36898
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000610/msgs/36898.html