Now the irony of that statement is that earlier a friend and I were discussing the recent suicide of actor Robin Williams. I questioned whether he might have been taking psychotropic meds and if this could have contributed to his suicidal decision. She had responded that new media coverage had reported that Williams had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. I had shared with her there there is research now showing that long time use of psychotropic medications is related to a greater risk of neurological diseases such as Parkinson's, dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Within hours of that conversation my daughter is standing in front of me with Parkinson's-like tremors that has me really freaked out. I called her doctor's emergency after-hours line and asked for a call back!!
She was asking me if I had anything for a headache so I gave her some naproxen and then went back to searching the side effects of the one med that is most concerning us, Geodon, while we were waiting for the doctor to call us back.
This is what I discovered about Geodon on the National Institute of Mental Health (NAMI) website:
What are possible side effects of Geodon®?
Common Side Effects
· Headache, anxiety, upset stomach· Feeling dizzy, drowsy or restless
Remember that headache she was asking for pain relief for? Laura has suffered with migraine-like headaches for years. She is highly medicated for ANXIETY (a side effect of this med!!) She is always nauseous, but we sort of wrote it off to the cocktail of meds she was on and thought it was just something she would have to adjust to. :-(
Now if anyone knows my precious girl.... she is ....well....just NOT graceful!! My beloved Laura is just klutzy, two left feet-- she is often dizzy and uncoordinated. (Can you hear my Mother GUILT tugging at my heart?) It was right there in black and white! These are the MOST COMMON side effects of the meds.
I took a deep breathe and began to read further.... now on to the SERIOUS side effects of this medication:
Serious Side Effects
· Some people may develop muscle related side effects while taking ziprasidone. The technical terms for these are extra-pyramidal effects (EPS) and tardive dyskinesia (TD). Symptoms of EPS include restlessness, tremor, and stiffness. TD symptoms include slow or jerky movements that one cannot control, often starting in the mouth with tongue rolling or chewing movements.
The doctor finally returned our call and we explained what we were seeing in the video above and how these symptoms had just started to occur over the last 3 days. He asked why she did not call sooner-- and she said she was afraid if she mentioned she was having side effects that he would up the dose. He instructed her to stop taking the Geodon IMMEDIATELY. No titrating down, Stop immediately! He asked us to call the office first thing Monday morning (as they are closed on Friday) and they will work her in ASAP. I asked him if he would be willing to take her off everything except the ones we knew were working well, and before all these others symptoms started. He said he would like to do that as well! OK-- my faith is a little bit restored that her doctor was actually listening to my concerns of what I was seeing. It did not hurt that I mentioned I was an LPC and was very familiar with bipolar and mental illness. He agreed with my observations and concerns :-)
Heart-breaking as this is-- I think we have just hit a major MILESTONE! Her psychiatrist has listened to every one of our concerns and seems to be willing to go back to ground zero where she was stable and functioning well!
I am looking forward to see what will happen at that appointment and how it may change Laura's life for the better! I am breathing a huge sigh of relief tonight!!
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