![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 3 of 3. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by mtom on January 13, 2019, at 11:20:08
Since starting escitalopram several months ago I've been experiencing muscle pain during the night, severe enough to wake me and disrupt my sleep. I think I have read this is a possible side-effect. I take my dose late evening after dinner. Pain seems to start a halfway through the night, diminishes during the day. Tylenol doesn't seem to help and my doctors are reluctant to prescribe NSAIDS (which do work better) due to possible interactions (e.g. bleeding, etc.) with SSRI's and other medications I take.
Any thoughts? Have others experienced this muscle pain?
Posted by bleauberry on January 14, 2019, at 7:49:12
In reply to Muscle Pain with escitalopram/Lexapro anyone?, posted by mtom on January 13, 2019, at 11:20:08
It's really hard to know. Lexapro could be causing problems with excess serotonin crowding out dopamine - sort of like a restless legs syndrome thing, in that realm anyway, not exactly the same.
It could be some other underlying unsuspected problem that the Lexapro somehow highlights and reveals.
For example I had extremely painful leg calves for years that started with serotonin reuptake inhibitors and it always seemed worse on serotonin meds compared to other meds. Antipsychotics also made it worse. Put both of those together and that is why I'm thinking maybe it has to do with a hypo-dopamine thing, excess serotonin.
But, to finish my story, years after that I got a diagnosis for Lyme disease which I apparently had for over 20 years, misdiagnosed as psychiatric. A negative Lyme lab test landed me int he psychiatrist office which as all wrong - it was lyme the whole time - all of the psych symptoms went away with proper treatment.
Anyway, long story short, those leg pains are completely gone after lyme treatment.
It could be too much serotonin from Lexapro causing issues in the veins and nerves of the leg, or it could be something totally different, something that is the actual cause of your depression in the first place, like borrelia, bartonella, babesia, mycoplasma. Those all cause profound difficult-to-treat psychiatric symptoms and the testing for them is very unreliable.
If your journey were to be like mine, which is not uncommon at all, millions of us, then it would be a stealth unsuspected microbial infection causing your issues, and also causing the leg pains in combination with the excess serotonin. That is actually exactly what happened with me. My legs got better when I was off of SSRIs, or when I was on antibiotics, or both. And that problem is completely gone now.
Why Can't I Get Better, author Horowitz, is a good book to get if you are still having issues a year from now.
Posted by Christ_empowered on January 14, 2019, at 14:35:57
In reply to Muscle Pain with escitalopram/Lexapro anyone?, posted by mtom on January 13, 2019, at 11:20:08
now and then the ssri drugs cause the same sort of eps that neuroleptics cause. :-(
other than that...maybe antidepressants just aren't for you? maybe something like modafanil+gabapentin? I dunno. id just hate to see you keep going from ad to ad, not getting what you need. not all anxious and/or depressed people take 'antidepressants,' after all.
hope things get better for you.
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Medication | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.