Serotonin Syndrome MADE EASY - Your professor made it too complicated 

I suffered from serotonin syndrome after two weeks of taking Prozac, and then the doctor added another medication to me, which I took, and I had a panic attack, severe fear, and confusion, and I felt like I was going to die. I went to the emergency room in the hospital and met with another psychiatrist who had no experience. I told him, unfortunately, he told me that you have anxiety that is not from the medication, and he gave me another medication. So I believed his words and went into a coma due to serotonin poisoning. The medication was withdrawn from my body, but I suffered severe depression and anxiety after that because of this incident. I continued to suffer for years, and I am now fine, much better than before, and I am still recovering without antidepressant medication. When I went to a psychiatrist, he went because I have a phobia of... Providing lectures at the university only..I am very regretful and wrong for going to a psychiatrist. I lost 3 years of my life because of that.

Absolutely Awesome video for me, as I'm a disabled RN with many serious health issues. I Needed this Video in order to protect and prevent this possible, dangerous dx of scary process for myself. Thank you so very much, !! ❤

I truly appreciate this video Sir. I've noticed the increase in several symptoms the last few weeks after my Dr gave me Trazadone. I'm taking Cymbalta and some meds for Epilepsy.

Thank you so much for this video. I have serotonin syndrome and it has taken four years and 28 ER visits to be diagnosed. I have even had a stroke due to my extremely high blood pressure of 220/200. Hopefully this video will save others.

Was prescribed a few different medications by a few different doctors and didn’t know that there was a high probability of serotonin syndrome. First of all I have been consuming kratom for years now and I have also been taking an SSRI of some sort for years now and went from citalopram over to paroxitine. Although it worked for a little while and I had absolutely no serious side effects that I could really tell. So I started to get anxiety again and so I was prescribed buspirone by a completely different doctor (it’s complicated but I have lots of friends in the medical field and didn’t have time to go to an appointment and all that) and around the time I started to take it religiously i started to get very bad tremors in arms, legs, hands and feet. Along with a few other problems that I just chalked up to either bad anxiety and wasn’t really sure what was going on. I was also given trazodone from another doctor friend that had a bottle that they never consumed and they gave it to me bc I was having problems sleeping. I never really took it but only a few times within a several month period and only took a half of one. So last Wednesday that day I consumed some adderal, along with my usual paroxitine, buspar, and kratom. Something I’ve combined quite a few times and besides my typical tremors and high amounts of anxiety that is pretty much my baseline, I wasn’t having anything crazy going on which would soon change…. So that night I decided I was going to take a trazadone bc i was stimulated more so than usual probably bc of the adderal but I had only ever taken half of the pill and only enough times in my whole life for me to count on one hand . So that night I took a whole one but still ended up only getting around 3-4 hours of sleep. I got up the next morning and I knew immediately something was wrong. My pupils were VERY dilated which is strange bc they are always pinpoint from kratom, and I was more paranoid than I have ever been and felt like I was having a non stop panic attack on top of having audio-hallucinations of police sirens that 100% weren’t real and I knew I was hearing things. Once I got to work I felt as if people were looking at me and talking about me despite having absolutely no reason to think they were and I was just honestly delusional. I felt like I was drunk and so much to the point where I kept dropping things, spilling the ink my company creates, and just literally looking like I was very very messed up on something. It was a very important day at work and I didn’t want to mess that up bc the higher ups already had meetings and stuff planned for me to attend and a few tests for me to take and I was already very paranoid so I was super scared to go and talk to my boss and say something was wrong bc I thought he would think I was heavily intoxicated from alchohol or some type of other illicit drugs and I didn’t even know what was going on myself and wasn’t able to even think correctly to even make a reasonable judgement on the situation, I was in pure survival mode. I ended up getting into an argument with the guy I was partnered with because he was being super annoying and trying to tell me how to do certain things a certain way despite it not mattering and everyone has their own way of doing these specific things and I was shown many different ways by many different people and it’s kind of “a whatever works best for you as long as you don’t take forever and the product turns out the same” (specifically he was getting mad about stuff like me putting labels on boxes in a different order than he does and other stuff that really makes absolutely NO difference in the product or the time it takes me to complete and he was acting like a literal child ) it got heated and soon after I went on break and sat in my car. I tried to calm down and I couldn’t. I came back in and started working and ended up spilling a ton of the ink all over the scales and of course my team lead and the guy who was arguing with me were looking at me after that happened and I 100% know they thought I was drugged up or drunk. So at that point I was losing my mind and was so paranoid I had adrenaline pumping through my veins and couldnt stand still for a single second and was looking around like a maniac thinking people were watching me when they weren’t. I don’t remember anything after that really but I figured out that stepped up on the step ladder after that to pour some ink and only know that bc my arm was covered in ink that only could have gotten on me from falling onto the machine which is only accessible by step ladder, and I proceeded to have a major seizure in which I I fell off the step ladder and hit the concrete ground and seized so bad that I wasn’t breathing and turned blue. I seized for around 4 minutes, around 2-3 minute mark I coughed a few times and they told me I started breathing again and regained my color and I came to and of course couldn’t remember my age or anything really, couldn’t walk, and really just didn’t even know anything happened at all and had typical post seizure symptoms. After a few minutes with paramedics I ended up leaving work with my sister who is a doctor after refusing to go to the hospital bc they can’t really do anything for a seizure and haven’t the past two times I’ve had them in the past and I already have huge amounts of hospital bills I owe. So started doing some research and realized all three of those medications are not supposed to be combined and puts the patient at very very high risk for serotonin syndrome. What I think was the two huge things that really sent me over the edge was the trazadone (added to my already bad combo of Peroxitine and Buspar) and also me getting into that argument with my coworker and having that stress on top of running on only a few hours of sleep. Anybody taking buspar needs to be very very cautious if combining with an SSRI and same thing with taking any combination of any of the three medications I fore mentioned, let alone all three together. I got very lucky and didn’t get severely hurt besides a bruise on my face from hitting something while falling and also my shoulders I’m guessing from either landing directly on them or landing in some weird way while seizing and almost tearing my rotator cuff’s. Long story I know but to end it all I will never take trazodone EVER again and stopped taking the buspar and the very next day the symptoms like tremors are almost completely gone and I feel like I’m completely almost back to more of a normal than I have been in a very long time. Hope someone reads this and it can help them in some way! I could have very well killed myself, crippled myself, got caught in the machine that I fell onto and where I probably smacked my face, I could have wrecked on the way to work and hurt myself and others and who knows what else could have happened. The thing was I was too out of my mind to think rationally at all and we all need to be on the lookout for symptoms(like my serious tremors for the past few months) and immediately go see a doctor before it gets to the point it did with me and now I have to do something different at my work bc I can’t be trusted to work on the large mill(s) bc I could easily kill myself if it were to happen again.

Hey thanks for this. I’ve been trying to figure out what’s been going on with me for the last six months, and none of my doctors mentioned this to me. I put my meds into an interaction checker tonight and saw that I had four of major risk interactions and three of those were that they could cause serotonin syndrome. I think I can get control of the situation now, thanks to this video. Thanks.

P4 student here, very helpful ty!

I like this video but I don't think you mentioned that some antibiotics can also contribute to serotonin symptoms in combination with other medications. I also have had serotonin syndrome several times and my experience I've had seizures and hallucinations. It also doesn't go away immediately I have to take Ativan med to reduce the symptoms which is often scary. Seek medical attention right away and my pharmacist is amazing, he always lets me know if a prescription med could increase serotonin.

I wanted to stop you, ask questions. I suspected I've high serotonin levels, but have none of the symptoms you mentioned. I guess I'm wrong SSRI's have an opposite effect of me, make me more depressed, and outright lazy. Activities that gave me pleasure, no longer do...

very helpful bro I take dxm and I was worried about serotonin syndrome. This really helped get a grip on it.

I'm going through this right now. I had a bout of nausea and dehydration earlier today and I am on Mirtazapine 15mg. I took half an ondansetron and wound up with a headache,diarrhea,stomach cramps and soreness in my neck. It's horrible and I should be drifting off to sleep right now. My GP has not once warned me that this was possible and after having it occur several times I have put two and two together myself. It saddens me that medical professionals don't warn of this and my chemist has not warned me either!

What about Venlafaxine? SNRI’s?

Is being prescribed 150mg sertalene in am and vyvanse 30mg so in am is that a good prescription all in morning new med change my SSRI used to be in evening

Great video sir. Well done

Wonderful information. I have had many issues with SSRI’s and SNRI’s over the years and they are no longer prescribed to me for moderate to sever anxiety. I wish there was something I could take besides benzodiazepines:/.

I fell so ill through lack of care I had no clue what I was doing I got so weak muscles wasted away went from 80 kilo to 76 in no time blood pressure high than low, I knew it was my meds but I was unable to get a review for my meds,my meds were Sertraline 100mg,Fluvoxamine 50mg,Allopurinol 100mg,Atorvastatin 40 mg, irbesartin 75mg,Bisoprolol 1.25mg,Melatonin MR 2mg,Clopidogrel 75 mg, Diazepam 4mg, I was a vegetable unable to read a measuring tape,my eyes looked terrible and my throat was raw swallowing was hard, I woke unable to breath horse gravelly voice forgetful ,tremors bad at night ,lucid dreams punching kicking,eyesight deteriorated quickly I got myself to A&E they told me to go home it was withdrawal from drugs!i felt I was in a bad place dangerously bad, I was behaving badly paranoid weak could not put a half inch screw in,I requested a review as it was 2 years i had struggled the head of department took one look at his computer swung around and said are you on all these meds yes, stop the fluvoxanin 50mg , he told me he would look after me now I felt unsafe he was wanting to sweep this under the carpet, I went to a chemist he looked at my hollow face than my drugs he said he was concerned as the drugs were pushing up my Sertraline I knew that I felt a weight life off my shoulders I was right,he would no help me though, so I stopped the Sertraline and within 24 hours I was back to myself, I don’t trust anyone at the moment I went through hell i though I had Parkinson’s and cancer, I prey i get the help I need healthcare is terrible in Jersey Channel Islands U.K.never give in.

Great info. Thanks

So always inpatient if it presents ?

Thank you 👍😊

Thank you.

What about taking buspirone here and there with fluoxetine (40mg daily) ?

Had serotonin syndrome, taking it for a neurological condition, 120mg maximum dose, doctors wouldn't acknowledge it, had to cold turkey myself, changed my behaviour and weight so badly, worst time of my life.

Is it bad to make yourself have serotonin syndrome every now and then

I've been on 40mg for a while now, is it possible for serotonin syndrome to happen out of the blue? I'm on no other medication

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Thank you