Long Term side effects of antidepression usage

[Soran69]

Hi, I'm a 45 year male, that has been on antidepressants since I was 15 years old. Lately (over the lasts 6 months) I have been experiencing, extreme loss of short term memory. I'll be watching a tv show, it goes to commercial and I have absolutely no idea what program I was watching. When, say doing some bookkeeping, I will look at an invoice, and when I go to input the invoice # or what ever I have to go back to the invoice, sometimes 2 to 4 times... I can be having a conversation with someone... and then I'm just drawing a blank... having no idea of what we were talking about... or I'll get up to do something, and before I've stood up straight, I can't remember what I was going to do. This is causing me a great deal of stress and worry, and maybe a little bit of insanity (just partially joking about the insanity thingy).

What I was wondering is if this short term memory loss can be explained away with long term antidepressant use or a possible physical condition. Doctors are in short supply in my city, and I've been to the walkin clinic for prescription refills, and when I've asked the doctor about it, all he has to say is that he's never heard of memory loss being a symptom of long term antidepressant use.

If it's not possible that antidepressant usage is the cause, how can I approach a doctor to get this looked in to.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated, and I guess it would be a good idea to state the medications I"m taking. I am 225mg of Effexor XR during the day, 75mg amitriptyline at bedtime. This I've been doing for the last 15 years. I've always been on amitriptyline, and before Effexor, the whole gambit - Prozac, Zoloft... and unfortunately I cannnot remember older stuff I've taken.

I thank you for your time and consideration and appreciate any help you could provide.

Thanks,

Rob

[LeftCoastChick]

It's important that you do find your own doctor, make the effort. Walk-in doctors, get paid by quota of patients. Most GP's don't have anything but basic knowledge of the drugs we use. Getting into a psychiatrist would even be better. If I had to take a guess at which drug could cause that it would be the amilytripaline that's doing it, that being said, depression can cause memory issues as well.

[birdie0907]

You should be able to get that info from your pharmacist.