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Dr. Andrew Rynne

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Suggest Treatment For Chest Pain And Depression

I am a 66 y/o female who had brain aneurysm surgery 4+ years ago. I suffer from severe depression because of the 8-hour surgery. I am current taking 225mg Effexor, 7.5 mg Abilify and 200 mg Wellbutrin. In the past few weeks, I have developed slurred speech, balance/falling issues, chest pain (on/off), involuntary jerking of my arms and tremors in my hands. I see my neuropsychiatrist in 2 weeks. What can I do in the meantime? I m kind of scared right now.
Mon, 16 Mar 2015
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Psychiatrist 's  Response
Hello,
Welcome to health care magic.
Thanks for posting your question at this forum.
We understand your concern.
I am Dr Alok Sinha, MD Psychiatry from India.
I will try to help you.

With whatever information you have provided I can understand that you developed post brain surgery depression, that is a quite common illness after an insult to brain like stroke/trauma/surgery.

As you told, you are taking psychotropic medicines since last about four years. Psychotropics may have their own adverse effect. The present symptoms like slurred speech, tremors of hands, involuntary jerking of arms and difficulty balancing points towards a condition called extra pyramidal symptoms. Extra pyramidal symptoms are a group of symptoms that occurs due to use of psychotropic medications and are characterized by tightness/rigidity of muscles causing difficulty in movement, slurred speech, difficulty balancing, tightness of chest, tremors of hands and feet and involuntary dystonic movements. These symptoms may occur at any time after starting the medicine and are well known to occur with tab Aripiprazole (Abilify). Old age and brain insult predisposes a person to these effects which is true in your case.
There are many symptoms in you that point towards this adverse effect. I advise you to consult your treating psychiatrist and discuss these issues who may add you some medicine like trihexyphenidyl/ promethazine to your therapy to cure you.

I hope it answers your question.
I wish you all the best.
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Suggest Treatment For Chest Pain And Depression

Hello, Welcome to health care magic. Thanks for posting your question at this forum. We understand your concern. I am Dr Alok Sinha, MD Psychiatry from India. I will try to help you. With whatever information you have provided I can understand that you developed post brain surgery depression, that is a quite common illness after an insult to brain like stroke/trauma/surgery. As you told, you are taking psychotropic medicines since last about four years. Psychotropics may have their own adverse effect. The present symptoms like slurred speech, tremors of hands, involuntary jerking of arms and difficulty balancing points towards a condition called extra pyramidal symptoms. Extra pyramidal symptoms are a group of symptoms that occurs due to use of psychotropic medications and are characterized by tightness/rigidity of muscles causing difficulty in movement, slurred speech, difficulty balancing, tightness of chest, tremors of hands and feet and involuntary dystonic movements. These symptoms may occur at any time after starting the medicine and are well known to occur with tab Aripiprazole (Abilify). Old age and brain insult predisposes a person to these effects which is true in your case. There are many symptoms in you that point towards this adverse effect. I advise you to consult your treating psychiatrist and discuss these issues who may add you some medicine like trihexyphenidyl/ promethazine to your therapy to cure you. I hope it answers your question. I wish you all the best.