Posted by King Vultan on June 18, 2004, at 8:04:02
In reply to HELP-Don't know where to go from here, posted by scatterbrained on June 17, 2004, at 1:41:45
I think Anthony's advice is very good, and I agree completely. Confusion and memory problems are sometimes seen with psychiatric meds if they are extremely anticholingergic, that is, if they interfere with acetlycholine transmission. Acetylcholine is a key brain transmitter, and disruption of the transmission of it is one of the key components of Alzheimer's Disease.
I think it is essentially impossible for you to get Alzheimer's Disease at such a young age, but you may have some other condition affecting acetylcholine transmission, which is why you might want to see a neurologist. I also think it's quite possible that your memory and confusion problems could just be the result of your depression, as I have experienced this sort of thing myself.
I also think it is essentially impossible to get tardive dyskinesia from an SSRI, and while there is a chance to get it from an atypical antipsychotic, it is quite low in comparison to older psychotic meds and would be virtually zero for a short term trial of an atypical as Anthony suggests considering. I have a very low opinion of atypical antipsychotics for non-schizophrenic/non-bipolar individuals, but some kind of trial of one might be worth pursuing, if only to put your mind at rest on this business of schizophrenia. Even if you aren't schizophrenic, if you can tolerate the side effects and the med provides some other benefit, it still might be worthwhile.
Todd
poster:King Vultan
thread:357454
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040614/msgs/357736.html