Severe Chest Pain

I am 27 years old. I started having chest pains when i was 19 when i took metabolife ( the old one they recalled years ago ) . They would lead to horriable panic attacks. i couldnt get a breath it seemed. Well, they went away for year after a month or so . A about a month ago i started taking Addipex , a weight loss pill. After 2 weeks of taking it i had the most horribale panic attack you can imagine. I had loss vision, consiciousness, and since of reality. I felt like i died. I cant even thinking about it. I was in the hosiptal for 2 days. They did all sorts of tests, but of course everything came back fine. They said it was a allergic reaction. The only thing with that is, i was of the pills for 2 weeks. That makes no sense. Its has been a week and a half. I am still having "episodes" of sever pain in my chest, but it has moved to my back now also. Its so bad i cant move or take in a deep breath. My doc doesnt seem to know whats going on, or have any intrest in finding out. He put me on some anitbiotics because my white blood cell count was 15.9 ( which is high ) . They arent helping. Im just at a loss. IS THERE ANYONE WHO CAN HELP WITH ANY ADVICE ? Im going to call mystery diagnosis when i find out what i have !

[J T Junig, MD PhD]

Adipex is phentermine, a mild stimulant that was in the news some time ago for being half of 'fen-phen', a weight loss cocktail that caused heart valve damage.  Nowadays you will see a great deal of talk online about 'phen-pro', a combination of phentermine and prozac that is used for weight loss.

I have a hard time imagining how the phentermine would have caused the pain you are describing;  the harm from phentermine occurred in people who took the drug for long periods of time, and in those cases it was thought to damage the heart valves-- and that would not cause the pain you are describing, rather requiring special imaging techniques to even find evidence that it has occurred.

The panic attack may have been related, as all stimulants tend to increase anxiety.  And during a panic attack almost any symptom can occur, including the things you describe during your panic attacks.  But I can't explain the pain or shortness of breath after the fact.

I wonder if you ruptured one of the air sacs in your lung, causing a 'pneumothorax'-- that can cause chest pain and shortness of breath.  But that would have shown up very easily in a chest x-ray-- or even a good physical exam.

I will leave this question open in case anyone else has ideas...

[scottma]

If your cardiologist can not find organic causes for the chest pain, one possible cause of chest pain is the referred pain from myofascial trigger point of scalene muscles.Seeing a health professional who is familiar with myofascial trigger pont pathology is advised.

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