Overdose - Celexa and Adderall Overdose

[formybrother]

SWIM has a brother who recently decided they no longer wished to walk this earth. This guy took a bottle of celexa (~3000mg) and possibly equal amounts of adderall. His parents found him semiconscious about 4 hours after when he began to have severe seizures.

Two days later after somehow avoiding liver and kidney failure, hearth damage, and death via serotonin syndrome he is off life support and awake.

Initially he babbled about random words and phrases making no sense whatsoever. A few more days and he remembershis family's names, where he grew up, and other similar facts. All memories from the last few days are wiped. More shocking is that he cant remember most of anything else regarding his life. When asked his age he responds with ten years younger than the truth. When asked what year it is he responds with ten years earlier than it is today. Things seem to be improving at a slower and slower rate. SWIM fears that soon there will no longer be any improvements.

SWIM is asking if anyone has any input on how permanent these mental changes may be and if anyone has seen serotonin syndrome induce retrograde amnesia in other persons.

[PsychoActivist]

Hey man, I am working on trying to compile some information on this. Resources on how permanent these symptoms are seem to be quite limited.

So far all I have found is that Amnesia seems to be quite associated with Citalopram overdose. In almost every page I have read about Citalopram, amnesia is like the 1st thing on the list...

Unfortunately as I have said, I am finding very little about the recovery and how permanent these effects are. I am going to continue searching.

Just wanted to let you know that I am working to try and find you some answers.

Also, I found this thread:
http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=102723

It's a pretty good analysis and in depth post about Serotonin Syndrome if you'd like to have a look. Not much in there about the time-span and what to expect as far as recovery but it is quite informative about SS in general.

I'll see what else I can dig up for you and as I find more I will continue to post.

It's a shame that people do this to themselves and I know it must be extremely hard for you and your family to deal with this. I wish you all the best and hang in there okay?

P.A.

[Boca Bitch]

I'm very sorry to hear this about SWIY's brother.

But I must ask... on the official diagnosis, other than OD, did they mention serotonin syndrome? Because not that combining citalopram (Celexa) and amphetamine salts (Adderall) couldn't result in serotonin toxicity, but I think it's more likely that he went through hypertensive crisis.

Either way, SWIY's brother is lucky to be alive. But as for the brain/neural damage, only time will tell if he recovers.

[Amnesia]

SWIM is very sorry to hear about SWIY's brother, she hopes this post will provide some comfort. SWIM will tell SWIY her story.

SWIM suffered severe serotonin syndrome almost 3 years ago, caused by normal theraputic use of Citalopram. It happened gradually over about 6 months, building in severity until she became delirious and began to seize. She suffered conscious seizures for 9 weeks due to incompetent medical care - 2 weeks after the seizures began she was admitted to hospital because her throat had closed up and she could barely breathe. She was given large doses of something to release the stored 5HT, benzodiazepines to stop the seizures and release the muscles in her throat, IV fluids and oxygen. Because, several hours after treatment, she could breathe unaided she was released the next day with absolutely no follow-up care (it may be worth pointing out that SWIM lives in the area of Britain which officially has the worst health care). During the next 7 weeks she continued with the conscious seizures and was not particularly 'grounded.' She showed little signs of knowing where, when or who she was, or what was going on around her, she rarely spoke. The word zombie springs to mind.

Her memory of that time is rather hazy, as she is sure SWIY can appreciate, but she does remember coming back to herself, so to speak, once the seizures passed. No longer a zombie she discovered she did not recognise her face in a mirror, she couldn't read, write, use a computer, play the saxophone, remember the lyrics to her own songs, how to use a phone, her friends, forming sentences was difficult, her vocabulary was extremely stunted - there are really too many things to list.
She had, and still has, retrograde and anterograde amnesia. Approximately 60-70% of her past memories were gone and that left her, at that time, in a state of permanent confusion. She was sure she should have been living in a different house, in a different part of the country, and that it was about 7 years previous to the actual date.

The anterograde (short term memory) amnesia has proven to be permanent, however some of her past memories have returned. She had to relearn how to read and write, use a computer etc but the more she tried and practiced these things the easier it became - it wasn’t like trying to teach a child, her progress would make huge leaps.

For about 1 ½ years nothing sparked the memories of her life, even reading the diaries she has kept for many years, but then she began to recollect things. It was, and still is strange what can bring on this recall - a scent, song, TV show, even a simple sentence or single word, and suddenly there are memories. They are never complete, they never flow, but she is essentially back to the person she once was - she has the same interests that she had before the serotonin syndrome, the same musical tastes returned, same choice of books, computer games, clothes etc.

In a way she was lucky because she had kept diaries, which, although she may not remember the times in them, filled her in on her life. In another way she was very unlucky because she didn't have her friends (which she unfortunately still can’t recall for the most part) and family (whom she recalls in broken fragments) around to fill her in on the rest. There is still a lot locked away, perhaps permanently, she can't say for sure, only time will tell.
However, memories still return now. Sometimes single images like a photograph, other times a lot more. Only 2 days ago she remembered part of an entire period of her life from 13 years ago.
She has learnt to let the memories flow, not to try to force them – this just made her severely depressed and anxious. It's a long, slow process for her, and she is still trying to piece it all back together in her mind. She now keeps a diary of things she has remembered.

One of the strangest parts of SWIM’s retrograde amnesia is that, although she barely remembers studying her first degree, she can still rattle off enormous amounts of information about the subject she specialized in. She doesn’t know where it comes from, she can’t recall it at will, but when asked a specific question she can answer it in detail and is never wrong. Then she wonders how she knows, but she just knows she knows.
She apologises if that doesn’t make sense but it doesn’t make sense to her either.

All SWIM can really advise, based on her experience, is that SWIY’s brother needs his family and friends to understand and try to help him when he can’t remember. Gently fill him in on the missing pieces. SWIM often had people demand that she “surely must remember,” or saying “of course you remember,” telling her “you can’t have forgotten that.” This made her feel very badly about herself. Others took the time to tell her things and answer her questions, and this helped a great deal. SWIM really hopes SWIY’s brother will experience things in a similar way (i.e. that his memories will return), or improve much more rapidly than she has done, but it may take a long time before there are signs of improvement.
SWIM also found talking to a therapist to be very helpful in dealing with the emotions and depression that losing her memory had caused.

SWIM wishes SWIY and SWIY’s brother all the best, and hopes he gets better quickly.

Edit:
SWIM just wanted to add that, according to her doctor, the level of amnesia she suffered is rare and that most people in similar situations improve much more quickly.
Take care.

[chibi curmudgeon]

So sorry to hear about him, I hope he improves, both physically and the bit about not wanting to live.

Citalopram is pretty safe, as far as overdoses go, which is why docs are much more willing to prescribe SSRIs than TCAs or MAOIs. The amphetamines were probably the worst part, but they're not as dangerous as most people think.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Pointless post. OP’s brother nearly died so why say these medicines are not that dangerous in OD? Has nothing to do with...

[chibi curmudgeon]

My point was that the guy isn't likely to have permanent sequelae from overdosing on those drugs. That's answering the OP's question, isn't it?