Celexa Parkinson’s problem.

[38yroldmale]

A little backstory to my Parkinson’s. 6 years ago my Dad died suddenly and completely unexpectedly. We ran a stressful family business together, so afterwards it was understandably tough. That is when I think my Parkinson’s started. Depression was my first symptom. I started on 20 mg of Celexa at that exact same time. People quietly noticed my movements and gait was a little off. My mother shortly after that health started failing. My stress level was crazy high. She went down hill fast and it tore me up. My symptoms were getting worse but I ignored them because of her. After she died, I went up to the highest dose of celexa at the same as getting tested for what was wrong. As soon as I increased my dose, my gait went to hell as well as some of my other symptoms. I was so down that I didn’t dare to lower them. Fast forward about a year, I got diagnosed and started treatment. Everything seemed to improve except my gait. I just started lowering my dose and immediately my gait and other symptoms seem to improve? 2 questions, could that antidepressant have anything to do with my Parkinson’s? Should I completely get off or change my anti depressants. Any thoughts?

[GymBag]

Some things that you say seem very odd to me . They are counter to my experience or anything that I have read . I will list the oddities or unusual.

1- You are only now 38 years old and this has been going on for a while, young onset does exist but there usually is a history in the family. You are very young to have PD

2 - I have never heard of PD starting as the first symptom being depression. Depression can start on its own for many reasons and does not need a PD to be involved.

3- Many medications can initiate side effects similar to PD symptoms . You said that increasing the dose of your depression medication did that.

4- The only PD symptom that one would expect at onset that you talk about is an odd gate ( I know what you mean) but it did not improve with PD mediation, therefore one could say that you do not have PD .

I suggest that you go back to the Doctor or Neurologist that determined you have PD and get a second review and if no change a second opinion from a qualified Neurologist.

PD is very often Miss- diagnosed ,usually by MDs but also by Neuroloists. See a Movement Disorder Specialist. Something is wrong though , get the right treatment.

[Hidden in reply to GymBag]

Non motor symptoms like anxiety and depression are common early symptoms and frequently precede the motor stuff.

[GymBag in reply to Hidden]

Did not know that, I have not much involvement with depression.

one point down 3 to go

thanks

[OREOLU in reply to GymBag]

Horace99 is right,I have been treating anxiety since 18yrs of age and my motor symptom started 30 yrs later but diagnosed a year after the onset of motor symptoms. Anxiety and depression do precede PD.

[rebtar]

My first symptoms were depression and anxiety. This is fairly common. Started about 14-15 years pre-diagnosis. I don't know for sure that this was an early PD symptom, but I suspect it was because when I started C/L, it improved immensely and I have been able to reduce my antidepressants quite a bit. SSRI's helped but never completely resolved my mood issues.

I take citalopram and I don't believe it makes my symptoms worse, but it may have e that effect in you. I would suggest that you might continue to reduce it under a doctor's supervision. VERY SLOWLY. More slowly than the doctor tells you to. Otherwise you may get rebound depression or other discontinuation symptoms. If your PD symptoms continue to improve and you don't feel depressed again, you may not need it anymore. If you find that you are feeling depressed again, consider switching to a different anti-depressant.

By slowly -- I mean reducing your AD dose by around 10% of the previous dose, every couple of weeks. If you like you can try faster, but discontinuation symptoms are a reality for a lot of people and I've found slow and steady wins the race.

[Grumpy77]

i guess you will have to change your username every time your birthday comes around

[lempa_nik]

Yes, you're not alone in this. Another PwP suffered worsening of motor problems from citaloprom (a.k.a. Celexa):

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/106...

Please note that SSRIs (of which citaloprom is an example) in general can bring on Parkinson-like symptoms:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

"SSRI have relatively safe side-effect profile but are common offending agents among antidepressants to cause variety of movement disorders [1,2]. DIP (Drug Induced Parkinsonism) can be induced by SSRI which can be reversible [3] or irreversible [4]. DIP is thought to rank second in order after Parkinson’s disease (PD) in causing Parkinsonism, accounting for up to 20% of the PD cases [5]."

[Hikoi]

As your Parkinsons is likely to have started at least 10 years before diagnosis I dont believe your depression was in anyway causative of PD. I have met many people with PD who try without anti depressants too early and end back on them. Only you know how depression is affecting you and your close ones. I would not be hasty about stopping your anti depressant.