Lexapro Fear

[Slsheeba567]

So my psychiatrist prescribed me Lexapro about a month ago for my anxiety/health anxiety/ocd, and I have yet to take it because I am so so so terrified of developing schizophrenia/bipolar disorder/going crazy after taking it. I was going to take it, but decided to do a quick check on the Internet to reassure myself and ended up scaring myself horribly. I saw a statistic that stated 18% of those taking Lexapro end up developing schizophrenia because of it, and read a horrifying story of a man who took Lexapro and tried to kill himself and his own children because of it. Reading these stories scared me so bad I decided not to take it, but now I feel depressed and like I've given up all hope. I'm so scared and I don't want to risk going insane and murdering someone while on the pill, but it's too hard and too much for me to try doing things an organic way. I'm stuck, and I feel really hopeless and depressed, and I don't know what to do anymore.

[MyNameIsTerry]

You have to be careful reading anecdotal reports by non scientific sources such as members of the public. There is no guarantee they are even real just as trolls create stories of other illnesses suffered. And there is the complicated nature of mental health issues to consider which members of the public will not understand or have understanding of the various forms of bias.

Also these meds are prescribed for a wide range of conditions. Some are already suicidal when they start them. Clinical reviews seek to split those who's conditions caused suicide from those affected by a drug.

There is also debate around co morbid conditions where schizophrenia developed later. But this still isn't understood let alone whether a drug caused it. But conditions such as schizophrenia appear very differently to anxiety disorders and are easy for the trained to spot.

I would talk to your psychiatrist about your concerns. You will likely find they are aware of conflicting medical evidence and studies that have failed to pass scrutiny in peer reviews.

[sam93]

I've been on Lexapro, otherwise known as Escitalopram, since December of last year. It's really helped with my anxiety symptoms, as it's one of the friendlier anti-depressants. I've actually read that Lexapro is used to help combat Schizophrenia (see study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23211492)... so not sure where you've read 18% of people develop it.

[Slsheeba567]

Here is the paragraph from where I got my information. I understand if no one wants to read it and trigger themselves, but here it is if anyone wants to fact check and prove me wrong:

"Yes. It is documented, proven, and furthermore specifically warned about by the FDA and by drug companies themselves.

Many people posting here seem to be under the unscientific impression that antidepressants can only cause mania in bipolar people or people who were previously misdiagnosed as something other than bipolar. This is an utter falsehood, and has been disproven.

Even in the 1950's and 1960's, antidepressants were already noted to cause mania and psychosis---and not just in bipolar or 'ostensibly bipolar' patients. Warnings about side effects like anxiety, mania, psychosis, panic attacks, anger/rage, depression, and violence are included in the antidepressant prescribing information which accompanies drugs being dispensed, and the FDA has issued independent statements warning about such side effects in patients taking antidepressants for any reason or having any diagnosis.

The majority of antidepressant prescriptions are off-label, including a significant number for entirely non-psychiatric conditions (like neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, vulvodynia, etc), and patients who take antidepressants for these physical health conditions still suffer from psychiatric side effects like mania and psychosis at concerning rates.

I. Who Does It Happen To?

It can happen to anyone.

Antidepressants, including all SSRIs (like escitalopram), can potentially cause mania, psychosis, depression, anxiety, or other psychiatric side effects in anyone. Healthy volunteers, people who take antidepressants for non-psychiatric conditions, and people who take antidepressants for mental health management but do not have an underlying psychiatric condition responsible for the new symptoms that develop after taking antidepressant drugs can all experience side effects including hypomania, mania, and various expressions of psychosis. Notably, there is no minimum clinical dose or amount of time someone must take an antidepressant before mania or psychosis are potential outcomes---they are a risk starting from the first instance of treatment.

Additionally, as many have explained already, antidepressants are known to trigger hypomania or mania in many persons who have conditions that contain a manic component, like bipolar depression (most prominently), unipolar mania, certain 'personality disorders', or other diagnostic categories. Antidepressants are also a risk factor for developing bipolar disorder later in life, particularly if use begins in childhood. This circularity can lead to an overestimation of bipolar people and an underestimation of the short and long term side effects of brain-altering drugs like SSRIs.

A third group of people antidepressants cause side effects like mania and psychosis is in people who try to reduce their dose or quit them. Antidepressant withdrawal can involve a wide array of physical, emotional, psychological, and behavioral symptoms, and can occur due to a late dose, a skipped dose, a reduced dose, or quitting the drug 'cold turkey'. Using tapers and switching to medications with longer half-lives to discontinue antidepressants does not prevent withdrawal, though some people experience a reduction of withdrawal symptom severity when keeping to a slow and steady pace and allowing for restabilization periods between dose reduction months.

So, everyone who takes antidepressants is at risk of side effects like drug-induced mania or psychosis, and the statistics suggest there is an even higher risk in people who are changing their medication or dose of medication, people with bipolar diagnoses, people who have previously used antidepressants or many other psychiatric drugs early in life, and certain age groups (like children and adolescents). Since nobody knows how or why antidepressants cause the effects they cause in people, risk assessments are more categorical than personal, and the individualistic way people respond to psychotropic drugs is not significantly predictable.

II. How Often Does It Happen?

Mania and/or psychosis reportedly occur in at least 16-18% of people who take antidepressants.

Troublingly, mania is not a rare side effect of antidepressants---it is not rare in persons with a bipolar diagnosis and it is not rare in persons with no underlying psychiatric association whatsoever. While figures are underreported, and side effects of antidepressants tend to be misdiagnosed at abnormal rates on top of that lack of reporting, mania is a reported side effect in more than 1 out of every 10 patients who take SSRIs or other antidepressants. This conservative estimation of occurrence was observed in both clinical trials and in studies of real-world patients.

Some statistics place it closer to 2 out of every 10, and studies have shown that certain patient populations, like adolescents, are at an increased risk of drug-induced mania, psychosis, and other psychiatric side effects. Contrary to what people have been implying in other posts, the incidence is so profound that analyses which exclude patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder from the reports of medication-provoked mania still result in approximately 1 in 10 patients experiencing mania as a side effect.

Mania and/or hypomania is in the top 50 most commonly reported side effects from over 3800 categories of reported adverse events associated with escitalopram collected by agencies like the FDA and Health Canada. Psychosis (under multiple headings, like "acute psychosis", "psychotic disorder" and "delusions" with "hallucinations", etc) is in the top 100. Hospital reported cases of treatment sought for antidepressant-associated mania and/or psychosis number into the hundreds of thousands every year just in US facilities alone. Not everyone experiencing these kinds of side effects will seek treatment for them, be seen in hospitals, or be appropriately diagnosed even if they do visit a doctor, and antidepressants are used in abundance quite globally."

There are links to back up these claims, but as I do not have 10 posts yet, I cannot post them.

[Phill2]

So my psychiatrist prescribed me Lexapro about a month ago for my anxiety/health anxiety/ocd, and I have yet to take it because I am so so so terrified of developing schizophrenia/bipolar disorder/going crazy after taking it. I was going to take it, but decided to do a quick check on the Internet to reassure myself and ended up scaring myself horribly. I saw a statistic that stated 18% of those taking Lexapro end up developing schizophrenia because of it, and read a horrifying story of a man who took Lexapro and tried to kill himself and his own children because of it. Reading these stories scared me so bad I decided not to take it, but now I feel depressed and like I've given up all hope. I'm so scared and I don't want to risk going insane and murdering someone while on the pill, but it's too hard and too much for me to try doing things an organic way. I'm stuck, and I feel really hopeless and depressed, and I don't know what to do anymore.

I was on it for 5 yrs and it was a life saver.
Best thing I ever did was take it.

[nomorepanic]

Hi

This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your post was moved from its original place to a sub-forum that is more relevant to your issue.

This is nothing personal - it just enables us to keep posts about the same problems in the relevant forums so other members with any experience with the issues can find them more easily.

Please also read this post:

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=213239