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jayjayuk
Deinonychus
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Joined: 15 Apr 2014
Age: 39
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30 Sep 2014, 7:26 am

I'm sure many here have experienced these, with a number of us having had to take SSRI's at some point.

What is the medical term for these brain zaps and what causes them biologically?

The only best way to describe them is like you have a guitar string in your head, and it feels like it's being plucked. Like a "zap" ha ha. And then there's a very short, but sudden, bout of dizziness and a feeling of separation from reality. You also get an odd buzzing feeling in the head.

Usually associated with withdrawal from an SSRI - in my case Citalopam.

Would love to know what they actually are though.



AspieUtah
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30 Sep 2014, 10:35 am

One medical term is Antidepressant Discontinuation Syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidepre ... n_syndrome (ADS). While the pharmaceutical industry claims it doesn't know what the "mechanisms of antidepressant withdrawal syndrome" are, symptoms include "...flu-like symptoms (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, sweating), sleep disturbances (insomnia, nightmares, constant sleepiness), sensory/movement disturbances (imbalance, tremors, vertigo, dizziness, electric-shock-like experiences ['brain zaps']), mood disturbances (dysphoria, anxiety, agitation) and cognitive disturbances (confusion and hyperarousal). Over fifty symptoms have been reported. Most cases of discontinuation syndrome last between one and four weeks, are relatively mild, and resolve on their own; in rare cases symptoms can be severe or extended. Paroxetine (Paxil) and venlafaxine (Effexor) seem to be particularly difficult to discontinue and prolonged withdrawal syndrome lasting over 18 months have been reported with paroxetine."

Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) are among the psychoactive-drug class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoactive_drug and, in combination with other drugs, can cause Serotonin Syndrome (SS) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotonin_syndrome which includes "a potential symptom of any number of life-threatening drug interaction which may follow therapeutic drug use, combination, overdose of particular drugs, or the recreational use of certain drugs."

Harvard Medical School described in 2010 how to accomplish "Going off antidepressants" http://www.health.harvard.edu/newslette ... epressants and "How to taper off your antidepressants" http://www.health.harvard.edu/newslette ... depressant safely to avoid ADS. Also that year, Scientific American magazine published a report http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... -dont-they which described that a report published by the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that antidepressants are no more effective than placebos for most depressed patients.


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Diagnosed in 2015 with ASD Level 1 by the University of Utah Health Care Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinic using the ADOS-2 Module 4 assessment instrument [11/30] -- Screened in 2014 with ASD by using the University of Cambridge Autism Research Centre AQ (Adult) [43/50]; EQ-60 for adults [11/80]; FQ [43/135]; SQ (Adult) [130/150] self-reported screening inventories -- Assessed since 1978 with an estimated IQ [≈145] by several clinicians -- Contact on WrongPlanet.net by private message (PM)