Finnman: Injured from Risperdal and Deprakine(Depakote)

[Finnman]

Hello everybody. I am a 54 year old male living in Europe,( nordic countries). I was unfortunately having a manic episode in august-september 2019 after being healthy for 12 years, and not using any medicines then. I was prescribed Risperidon, which I used for 3 months, first 3 mg for about 5-6 weeks, then 2 mg for 4 weeks, then 1 mg for 2-3 weeks. Then I stopped Risperidon. I didn't realise when taking it, but afterwards I did realise that it caused me to have heart problems, persistent atrial fibrillation. Before that I never had any heart problems in my life, not a single time, no palpitations ever.

 

Later, I've had two cardioversions, and have been in regular sinus rhythm since June 2020, but I am using heart medications for it,( tambocor and metoprolol). While using Risperidon autumn 2019, I was experiencing depression,( which i had a feeling was caused by the medication).

 

  I went to a mental hospital in February 2020, stayed there for 10 days( I was not psychotic). There I was prescribed Deprakine,(Depakote) and zyprexa 10 mg. I stopped zyprexa when returning home, and after a while Depakote too.

 

But I restarted Depakote march 2020 due to anxiety and used it to June 2020, about 3 months). The dose was 1000mg,( 1300 mg one week). Of course Risperidon destroyed my libido, but it returned 3 months after I stopped it. However I didn't realise that Depakote would also destroy my libido and sex life. That I knew again afterwards after doing some research about it. Now 7 months after stopping Depakote libido and sexuality has not returned. I am also feeling depressed.

 

I think Depakote caused this, has anybody experienced something of the same?.I also experience anhedonia, I am not the person I used to be.

 

I think Risperidon caused some kind of autonomic dysfunction, and Depakote again made it worse. If I had knew about the side effects of Depakote I never would have taken it, ( the same goes for Risperidon, I would have stopped it sooner). I am curious, have anybody had these experiences, and have you recovered?. I hope that I could get my life back.

Edited January 29, 2021 by manymoretodays
name to title, spacing for readability

[Altostrata]

Welcome, Finnman.

 

What we have seen is that going on and off psychiatric drugs eventually can be very stressful to the nervous system.

 

We have many people here experiencing sexual dysfunction (PSSD) and emotional anesthesia after going off their drugs.  We have seen these very gradually tend to go away over many months.

 

It's also possible that your depression is your very understandable emotional reaction to the adverse drug effects on your heart and your ongoing sexual dysfunction -- or it could be a side effect of the cardiac drugs you're taking.

 

If I were you, I'd review potential adverse effects of your cardiac drugs and discuss this with your doctors. The drugs also need to be tapered.

[Finnman]

Thank you Altrostrata for answering. I have thought about and looked at these issues that you mention. I still think that the Depakote mainly caused this pssd-like symptoms to me. 

[manymoretodays]

Hi Finnman, and welcome,

And so sorry to hear of the heart problems from risperdal.  And oh so glad you are off that one.

A good starting place to check out medications is Drugs.com

 

And then a little more on  WD(withdrawal), as well:

What is withdrawal syndrome

 

 Please put your withdrawal history in your signature to help us out.  You'll see this below other members posts, and it does help to give us a context, wherever you post

 

On 2/2/2021 at 3:29 PM, Finnman said:

I still think that the Depakote mainly caused this pssd-like symptoms to me. 

 

We've got a topic on: PSSD Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction

and although the Depakote is not an SSRI AD(antidepressant) it may be a WD symptom

 

You may also be interested in this:  Apathy, anhedonia, emotional anesthesia

 

Dr Glenmullens Withdrawal Symptom Checklist

 

We don't recommend a lot of supplements on SA, as many members report being sensitive to them due to our over-reactive nervous systems, but two supplements that we do recommend are magnesium and omega 3 (fish oil). Many people find these to be calming to the nervous system.  

 

Magnesium, nature's calcium channel blocker 

Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) 

 

This is your introduction/journal page where you have now introduced yourself to the community, you can ask questions here regarding your tapering, give updates, and just keep a record of your journey.

 

And welcome again Finnman.  Best.

 

Love, peace, healing, and growth,

manymoretodays(mmt)

[Finnman]

Thank you for your answer manymoretodays. The problem with Valproic acid( Depakote, Deprakine and more brand names) is that it messes with the sex hormones. That I have read on PubMed and also other scientific publications. Of course this didn't read on the package leaflet. Strange. It's like the patient isn't told the truth about the medication. If it takes away the sex drive it must surely be effective as an antimanic agent. But the price for the user is too high and probably no one would take it at least for bipolar condition if they knew about this effect. Well it can be an partly individual effect of course. In fact for men it can even cause testicular atrophy. Very scaring medicine.

 Some medical publications say the effects can be reversible, but they can take several months, and even a couple of years.

The best regards to you all.

 

[manymoretodays]

Hi Finnman,

And yes.  Also true.  We should get more disclosure around these drugs, before we agree to take them.

 

And we've got a bit of a different paradigm here, as far as that "bipolar diagnosis" goes.

 

Here's an excerpt from a member's Introduction that you might be interested in:

The DSM also states clearly that “no laboratory findings [that is tests] that are diagnostic of a manic episode have been identified.” In other words, there is no blood test, x-ray, brain scan, or any other test to objectively definitively diagnose someone with a bipolar disorder. Instead, bipolar disorder is a diagnosis made on the basis of the patient’s behaviour and mental state.

 

If a patient who is not on any drugs becomes manic, then one can reasonably conclude that the patient has bipolar disorder. But, if the manic -like state is caused by an antidepressant, this is a drug induced state, which, although it may mimic bipolar disorder is not actually bipolar disorder, as explicitly stated by the DSM, psychiatry’s official diagnostic manual.

 

In recent years, the pharmaceutical industry has inundated doctors with “educational” material on “bipolar depression,” promoting the idea that depressed patients who became anxious, agitated, and sleepless on antidepressants, are bipolar: bipolar II if the patients ”just” become anxious, agitated and sleepless; Bipolar I if they become paranoid reckless or psychotic.

Bipolar I or bipolar II doesn’t matter, the “treatment” is more drugs, powerful antimanic agents.

 

Psychiatric diagnosis are subject to manipulation because there are no objective medical tests by which to diagnose any psychiatric condition.

 

The subjectivity of the psychiatric diagnosis makes them vulnerable to commercial exploitation.

 

When people take so much cocaine that they have manic -like reactions and end up in the emergency room, they diagnosed with cocaine toxicity.

 

When people have manic like reactions to steroids, they are diagnosed with steroid toxicity.

 

Yet when people have the same type of reactions to antidepressants, they are misdiagnosed with so-called “underlying bipolar disorder.” The practice protects antidepressants and promotes antimanic agents, which have become multibillion-dollar a year drugs.

 

That excerpt is taken from this post:  https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/topic/7571-☼-nz11-climbs-onboard/?do=findComment&comment=252479

in nz11's topic, and you'll see the references there too.

 

And then:  Again, chemical imbalance is a myth. Stop the lies please

 

On 2/6/2021 at 10:01 AM, Finnman said:

But the price for the user is too high and probably no one would take it at least for bipolar condition if they knew about this effect. Well it can be an partly individual effect of course. In fact for men it can even cause testicular atrophy. Very scaring medicine.

 Some medical publications say the effects can be reversible, but they can take several months, and even a couple of years.

The best regards to you all.

 

And yes, I certainly wish fro your complete healing.

And am interested in how you came off your drugs, and if you remain on any now, which could be summarized in a Signature.  Thanks the instructions for doing that are in that link, and then it's the section you'll see below other members posts, as well as your own.

 

On 1/31/2021 at 9:15 PM, Altostrata said:

If I were you, I'd review potential adverse effects of your cardiac drugs and discuss this with your doctors. The drugs also need to be tapered.

 

And yah, I'd want to do a review on my cardiac drugs now too.  For my own advancement in knowledge and understanding of drugs/medications, I usually start with going to:

Drugs.com

There's a top box that you can plug in individual medications in.  Unfortunate, that we have to look out for ourselves so much, but it is what it is.  I sometimes use Wikipedia, and PubMed as well.  Thankful for the internets.

And then if you have a cardiologist or other doctor, that is open to alternatives to drugs, sometimes that helps too.

 

Anyway, hope you are continuing to heal, as I type.  And keep us updated.  Thank you.

 

L, P, H, and G,

mmt

 

[Finnman]

Hello, and thank you for your very good reply. Now sitting in my basement and listening to some very good music, that will say, one of my favourite artists Bob Dylan.

I think he is a man, who in many of his songs,  stood up for the mistreated people, the underdog, who wasn't liked by the ones in powerful positions. I think all the people who are writing to this site have experienced a fraud, they were taught to believe in a system, that they thought would help them. And it is a shocking experience when you realize that something that was supposed to help you, turned out the opposite way out, it harmed you instead of helping you. And oftentimes when you realise this, the damage has been done, and you got to rely on the hope that time will heal your body, or the very complicated system of which a human being consists of. 

In the 1950,s doctors used lobotomy, believed to be a magic cure, to help people with mental sickness, as a treatment for these illnesses. Then, this was believed to be a good treatment. Needless to say, everyone knows that this treatment later on, was evaluated as disasterous and extremely harmful to the patients. It was almost the same as killing them. Despite this, in the time, when lobotomy was practised, it was thought to be a very good treatment, and I don't think many doctors questioned this treatment. It took maybe ten thousands of tragedies worldwide before it was noticed, that this may be very wrong.

I have a feeling, that in the future, it will be acknowledged that psychotropic medications made a lot of damage to the people who who took these drugs, and did trust in doctors, and obeyed their orders. I now think, that if you are offered a bad treatment, that you think might harm you, it is better not to take it. No treatment at all is better than a treatment that will possibly harm you.

I have experienced that doctors are not generally concerned about the adverse effects that you may have from a drug. They just look at the manufacturers, the drug company's list that some of the adverse effects only happens to one user in a hundred or a thousand. The problem is, that you may be that one person of one hundred or one thousand. And when you say to the doctor that you had this adverse effect from the drug, they look at the list and say it is not likely since it only happens in one of a hundred or a thousand cases when the drug is administered. I also think that the drug companies list of adverse effects is not complete, not everybody reports an adverse effect to the health authorities.

To talk to doctors is like fighting a bear, you know you have no chance to win or to be very much respected.

At least in Europe, and in Finland, the doctors education is strongly connected to drug industry. And in addition, the pharmaceutical companies have a very strong saying in how diseases are treated. A jury of doctors who are at least partly financed by pharmaceutical companies write how a condition is treated, and this treatment is then official, in Finland "käypä hoito". I don't criticise how somatic diseases are treated, but mental conditions are a totally different scene, because we are talking about situations, for example mania, medicine doesn't know much about it, what causes it and so on. It seems to me very difficult to treat something that you don't know much about. 

As to me, I am certainly offered to take psychotropic drugs. But you can be sure, no way, I am not taking these medications after the awful adverse effects I had from these drugs. I don't know if I will heal to that extent, that I am satisfied with myself, that will say,  to feel that I am am the person I used to be. But i will fight for that and will not give up. Best wishes to you from Finland.

[Finnman]

Hello. I was on risperdal 3 mg 19.9-20.10. 2019, and then 2mg one month, and then 1 mg till 17.12.2019, and then stopped this medicine. I am absolutely sure that risperdal caused me to have atrial fibrillation, and it also caused me to have depression. Then I used for some weeks until about 20.1 2020. I then after an appointment with a psychiatrist started Seroquel 200 mg. That turned out to be a disaster for me, it soon gave me anxiety and suicidal thoughts. I had to ask for a hospital stay, so I volunteerly stayed 10 days at a psychiatric hospital in February 2020. The Seroquel was stopped, and I used zyprexa 10 mg and Deprakine, Valproic acid 800 mg. I stopped the zyprexa soon after the hospital stay, and soon stopped the Deprakine too. Anyway I was stupid to start Deprakine again at end of march 2020 due to anxiety I got because of the covid virus. Doing this I regard as the biggest mistake I have made in my life. But I didn't know about the horrible effects of this medicine.

It seemed to help in the start with sleep, but after a while I got depression again, and I think it was because of the medicine. I stopped it cold turkey 20.6.2020 after about 3 months use. I think this medicine has caused me sexual disability, no sex drive, and it's almost 9 months since I quitted it. Now I am not using any psychotropic medicines, only two cardiac medicines. Tambocor 100 mg and metoprolol 23,75 mg a day. They also may affect sexual functions. it's hard to say if I will recover. I hope I will.

[Millstreet11]

On 2/2/2021 at 11:29 PM, Finnman said:

Thank you Altrostrata for answering. I have thought about and looked at these issues that you mention. I still think that the Depakote mainly caused this pssd-like symptoms to me. 

Hi may I ask how you stopped Depakote and if it caused severe anxiety? Agitation 

[Finnman]

On 10/28/2022 at 7:59 PM, Millstreet11 said:

Hi may I ask how you stopped Depakote and if it caused severe anxiety? Agitation 

Hi, I pretty much stopped it cold turkey. I maybe took it for some days a smaller dose. I used valproic acid for 3 months 1000 mg,( one week 1300 mg), before i quitted it. Yes it caused some anxiety and anhedonia, though i also had these symptoms while on the drug. Best of luck if you are trying to taper. I think almost every other medicine is safer than depakote.

 

[Millstreet11]

On 11/28/2022 at 5:08 PM, Finnman said:

Hi, I pretty much stopped it cold turkey. I maybe took it for some days a smaller dose. I used valproic acid for 3 months 1000 mg,( one week 1300 mg), before i quitted it. Yes it caused some anxiety and anhedonia, though i also had these symptoms while on the drug. Best of luck if you are trying to taper. I think almost every other medicine is safer than depakote.

 

Hi Finn,

 

thank you very much for your answer.  

I also have more anxiety since im on Depakote.  I wonder why its supposingly to help with anxiety.

 

Greetings from Berlin 

[Finnman]

On 12/1/2022 at 3:38 PM, Millstreet11 said:

Hi Finn,

 

thank you very much for your answer.  

I also have more anxiety since im on Depakote.  I wonder why its supposingly to help with anxiety.

 

Greetings from Berlin 

Hi millstreet. Thanks for the greetings. To me depakote didnt do anything good. It maybe helped first with anxiety i had from corona 2,5 years ago. But only a short time, then i came depressed from it, and it didnt help with anxiety any more. Unfortunately it did also do lasting damage to me, libido is gone for maybe ever. Hope you are doing well. Greetings from Helsinki.

 

[Millstreet11]

Hi Finn, im very sorry to hear that! 

Depakote has been by far the worst drug for me. Please don't give up hope that you will fully recover

[Finnman]

Hi Millstreet. Thank you for your wishes. Hope that you will recover too. Merry christmas!.