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ssri's effect on cognitive functioning???

Posted by Mike Lynch on March 31, 2004, at 23:35:16

I am curious about the relation between my overall cognitive functioning and the usage of ssri’s. Here is what I have noticed , before I was on paxil , I had trouble with , concentration , staying on task , I had trouble formulating some of my thoughts into words as well as a poor ability to explain things ( I’d step on my words , forget to add something important so I had to go back to the beginning , just freezing trying to organize my thoughts) , my attention seemed horrible , I spaced out a lot. ( I had these symptoms pretty much my whole life) I was eventually diagnosed with ADD , put on adderall which I have no doubt triggered my depression in some way. Well I was then put on the Paxil and what I only noticed until now is that I became much brighter. First my attention problems seemed to have vanished , I seemed much more alert and attentive. I noticed my vocabulary improved greatly , I could describe things and express myself , without problems.. Have intellectual conversations with ease. I made the assumption that I had just grown out of the add symptoms I was experiencing..

I was really satisfied. After about maybe 4 months of being on the Paxil I noticed I had trouble concentrating , trouble talking to people in a fluent manner , ( stopping a lot , mainly trying to find words to describe what I was saying) I noticed when I tried to write a paper it took my 10 times as long , and I couldn’t describe things as well as I use to. So I attributed this decline to the Paxil , and weened myself off it.

As I look back at it now , it seems the reason for the difficulties I was having on the paxil was not directly attributed to the paxil , but related to it because it most likely just stopped working , which ssri’s are known for. Is it possible for ssri’s to make me brighter in this way??

As of now I feel extremely slow when it comes to everything ( I remember being bad but not this bad) I feel like my brain process’s are going through molasses , my thoughts are delayed and it is really frustrating . When I am talking to someone , my brain seems locked. I know there’s something I want to add to the conversation but it’s just not coming out. Then minutes later the thought will finally pop into my head ( of course it’s to late then). I also have to read something what seems like dozens of time in order to comprehend it. It just seems like all of my thoughts are delayed , someone will tell me something , surprising , or something I’d normally be interested in , but it just wouldn’t register in my mind. Five minutes later , it will click and I’ll all of a sudden become interested in it and start questioning him about it , especially frustrating when the topic has changed. Even when someone tells a joke , it takes a long time to register in my mind , 5 minutes after I’ll be saying to myself , wait a minute that was funny why didn’t I realize that.

Is it possible the Paxil has contributed to these troubles?? It regulates neurotransmitters , and most of the problems I have describes seem like the result of neurotransmitters not working properly ( message being sent to my brain , registering in an unreasonable amount of time) Could the paxil have damaged these receptor sites?? Or does my first theory , about the paxil’s losing it’s effectiveness over time as a result of this decline , seem more accurate. It could be a combination of both . I hope the paxil hasn’t worsened my already poor cognitive ability. I’ve been on the lexapro for about 3 weeks now , I really haven’t noticed a recognizable improvement cognitively. ( I guess mood is stable , but I still don’t feel like myself) I’m just really confused here , any similar experiences or possible explanations would be greatly appreciated.


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Psycho-Babble Medication | Framed

poster:Mike Lynch thread:331128
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040329/msgs/331128.html