apuddle: I believe that effexor, abilify and clonazepam damaged my bladder

[apuddle]

Moderator note: link to benzo forum thread - apuddle: Have any of you suffered from frequent urination and urgency while being on clonazepam?

 

I'll try and keep it short because I feel cognitively blunted at the moment. 

 

Last year I was put onto 1mg of clonazepam at night. Then towards the end of the year I was put on effexor 75mg and It did nothing for me and I had no side effects. Near the end of last year it was decided to up my dosage to 150mgs of effexor. I was OK for a month or so. In January I was finally diagnosed with a new chronic condition and had my clonazepam upped to 6mg and was put onto abilify at 10mg. I can't give you exact times and dates but I would say that around February time I started to suffer from urinary hesitancy. It got to the point where I had to sit on the toilet for around 15 minutes until I could finally push the urine out. I tried to see if it went away within a few weeks but it didn't. So I tapered off of effexor and around the 37mg mark I could finally stand and pee (i'm male). Around a week or two later I was fully off of effexor and everyting seemed to be back to normal. 

 

Three weeks later, out of nowhere, I was sitting on my chair watching tv and had an intense urge to pee. it was awful. it felt like something had exploded in my bladder and I just needed to pee and never stop. I had a constant feeling of urgency, frequency and nocturia. When I tried to sleep, I would lay down and my bladder felt like it had pins and needles, which prompted extreme urgency and a feeling of my bladder being full. I'd get up, go to the toilet and only drips would come out. Awful! No matter what position I laid in I had that awful feeling in my bladder with extreme urgency.  

 

The strange feeling when trying to sleep eventually calmed down after 2-3 weeks, and I realised that not drinking 4-5 hours before bed really helped me get some sleep and stop the nocturia.  

 

I stopped the Abilify but nothing happened. It had no affect on my bladder and how it was feeling. 

 

I am now only taking clonazepam 6mg, but I should be taking 2 other meds but refuse to until I get some idea of what's going on.

 

I have seen a urolgist. I Have had blood tests, urine tests, antibiotics, a camera down my penis and into the bladder, and a urodynamics test. Everything has come back clear! They have no idea what is causing it and are calling it idopathic. I have tried the medications for bladder spasms to they do nothing but make me constipated and dry my mouth out. 

 

So my life for the last 6 months has been nothing but peeing up to 20 plus times a day. Needing to urinate when my baldder fills with 100mls of urine and just feeling lost and hopeless.

 

I find it very coincidental that I was having issues with my bladder on Effexor, and then 2-3 weeks after completely stopping this new bladder condition comes out of the blue. It'S also possible that abilify somehow did this to me.

 

I am currently tapering off of Clonazepam and I am on 5.5mgs. I have so far seen no improvement when it comes to my bladder, and to be honest I don't expect to. I have done so much reading up on the drug (clonazepam, hoping, praying that it could all be down to the benzo, but it's just so unlikely. Surely I would have developed these symptoms during the 9 months I was on them. Unless they are somehow interfering my body healing itself after coming off effexor, but that was 7 months ago now. 

 

I'm angry and I refuse to believe that this just came out of nowhere! I'm a healthy 32 year old male who will now most likely have to live with this awful condition for the rest of my life, or eventually have a bag on my stomach. 

 

Has anyone else had similar problems?

 

Anyway, that's me and my introduction.

 

Thanks. 

 

 

Edited October 23, 2018 by Shep
added tags and link to benzo forum thread

[ChessieCat]

Hi apuddle and welcome to SA,

 

Firstly, I did a google search for effexor side effects urination and found this (which was Submitted 17 December 2016; Accepted 11 January 2017):

 

From:  https://www.pagepressjournals.org/index.php/aiua/article/download/aiua.2017.2.160/6590

 

"CASE REPORT A 48-year-old male patient with a diagnosis of major depression presented to our clinic with LUSSs, which included difficulty urinating, an intermittent stream, and trickling at the end of urination, together with an inability to urinate. The symptoms had lasted for about 20 h and had started after the venlafaxine dosage had been increased from 37.5 mg twice daily (75 mg/day) to 75 mg twice daily (150 mg/day) 1.5 months earlier. The patient had no history of significant disease or abdominal or urologic surgery ..."

 

Secondly, we ask all members to create a drug signature.  This will appear below each of your posts and makes it easy for us to see your drug history at a glance.  Please update it whenever you make a change.  Please make it nice simple by following these instructions NO diagnoses or symptoms please - thank you):

 

• details for last 2 years - dates, ALL drugs, doses
• summary for older than 2 years - just years and drug/s
•  

Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature

 

One of the other mods who knows more about this will be better able to answer your questions and offer suggestions.

 

This is your own Introductions topic where you can ask questions about your own situation and journal your progress.

 

Edited October 23, 2018 by ChessieCat

[apuddle]

Thank you got bringing the case study up for me to look at.

 

I will definitely do a signature but I have been on so many medications that I am unsure of the times and when I took them. I am also in a brain fog at the moment and feeling extremely emotional. I'm a 32 year old male and I keep having fits of crying spells. I feel so weak it's pathetic but I am diagnosed with a number of mental health conditions and a neurological disorder. And now this bladder issue just feels like it' all too much. So, I want to try and be a bit clearer with whats going on and whats drugs I was on. I'm sorry if none of this makes sense or isn't very clear. I'm just struggling at the moment.

 

Ok. Last year I was put onto quetiapine 50mg xl. I can't remember how long I was taking it for but it was eventually upped to 100mg xl maybe towards the end of last year. I was put onto Venlafaxine 75mg xr on the 30th of October 2017. This was then upped to 150mg xr on the 18th of Jan 2018.  On the 1st of February I was put onto Abilify 5mgs.  In February I did a fast taper and got off of Quetapine in about 4-5 weeks. I then started 10mgs of abilify in March. I have been taking Clonazepam since August 2017. I started off on a dosage of 0.5mg but when I saw a neurologist about my other condition it was decided that I increase my dosage up to 6mg over a slow period. I finally hit 6mg in February 2018. 

 

I believe that it was march when I started having urinary hesitancy. This could be due to the augmentation with Abilify. So in march I decided to come off of Venlafaxine and I am assuming that I did this at a rate that was too quickly. I made a post on another website on the 18th of April saying how I was now on 37mgs and should be completely off by the 1st of may 2018. I remember when I was doing my fast taper that I felt sick, and had some WD's and had lots of brain zaps. 

 

My bladder problems started on may the 14th. So it happened two weeks after coming off of Venlafaxine and 2-3 months after being off of Quetapine. Now remember, my bladder issues are the opposite of what they were when I had problems on the Venlafaxine. They are currently needing to pee 20 plus times a day because I get a sense of urgency when my bladder hits 100-200mls of urine. I have to pee 5-6 times at night before I can sleep while laying in bed and it'll only be droplets. My bladder seems to be in a strange state after I have had a bowel movement. It feels like it just wants to pee none stop. 

 

After looking at all of this I am thinking it's possible that it's something to do with the Venlafaxine, But what could it have possibly done to me? Should I ask to go back on it to see if it fixes the problem? Has it done something to my serotonin levels? I know it plays a role in the bladder and spinal cord. Maybe the Clonazepam is doing something that's not letting my body heal correctly? 

 

One of the mod in the benzo sub was good enough to point me to another thread where people have had the same problems after coming off of Venlafaxine. I have to say that I am not hopeful that this will go away. Some guy said it started 10 days after being on an AD and he has had it for 2.5 years. Another who was also on Venlafaxine (his name is dj2010) said he suffered from it but it went away after a year or so. That gives me a small amount of hope. 

 

I really hope it's not permanent. I'm supposed to be going onto mirtarzapine and pregabalin, but I'm holding them off until my last test with the urologist which is on the 1st of November next month. 

 

I just find the timing all way too coincidental. There's supposed to be a giant thread on Venlafaxine and people having urination problems and WDS after, or that start a few months after coming off of it that talk about the urination problem, but I can't find it. 

 

I feel like it's never ending. And to think that I might be permanently damaged does scare me. 

[apuddle]

Feeling really low tonight. After reading the urine and bladder thread I feel like I have most likely done my body some permanent damage!

 

There are a few on here who say they healed after a few months, one after a year and a bit, a few after 2-3 years and some that have never healed. 

 

I can't work out if it is to do with the serotonin or not. I was also taking Abilify at the time, which I read increases Serotonin in the brain also. So it can't have been due to a huge drop after coming off of the venlafaxine? right? Unless it damage the actual bladder wall lining which also controls neurons, etc. 

 

I also keep getting a tingling in my scrotum and perineum. Had it for a few months. Possible nerve damage?

 

Bladder training doesn't work. 

 

I'm on my 5th day now of tapering from 6mg on Clonazepam. I do wonder if it has been adding to me severe depression.

 

I wish I could go back in time and do things properly. I wish I could have said no to the VEN! I bet those words have been said 1000 times. I guess we will see where I am at in 6 months times. 

 

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