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Celexa for treatment of arrhythmia?
by bexter12, Oct 29, 2008 08:27PM
I have been under the care of a cardiologist since June of this year when I started having near-fainting episodes. After i had been seated for a long time, or working in the garden and would stand up, I feel as though I'm going to pass out. I lose my vision and sometimes my hearing for 10 seconds or so. This started all at once after a 15k road race at 2500 ft above sea level. I had my blood pressure checked and was 84/50. For days it hovered in that range getting no higher than 88/56.
Long before the race, i had experienced very pronounced arrhythmias when i lie down. If I lie down to read or go from standing to lying in a yoga class, my heart will race...pause...double beat...pause...race..etc. The only way to stop this arrhythmia is to sit or stand up and it goes straight back to regular sinus rhythm.
After the low blood pressure, I made an appointment with my family doc who did an ekg. He found both bradychardia with a marked sinus arrhythmia and referred me to a cardiologist.
I failed my tilt table test, went into a junctional rhythm after the test that felt pretty scary. The administering doc ordered an ep study during which I had bouts of v-tach, atrial fib and junctional rhythms. He was unable to find anything to oblate so he sent me home with a 30-day event monitor and a beta blocker.
The beta blocker dropped my blood pressure even lower. upper 70's over 50's. When he got the results back from the monitor, he had his nurse call me that day to double my beta blocker based on the frequent bouts of a-fib and v-tach he saw. I told her I didn't think I could tolerate that seeing how low my pressure had gotten.
He agreed and put me on celexa 20mg a day.
I have never had any kind of depression or anxiety or panic attacks so I was nervous about going on an ssri. Its been absolute hell. I haven't stayed awake all day since I started it six weeks ago. My face is generally numb and my cardiac symptoms have gotten worse if anything.
He suggested I be admitted for a load of norpace but after reading about the risks of anti-arrhythmia drugs, I was skeptical until I could talk more with him about the severity of my diagnosis.
My cardiologist doesn't have any kind of an appt open for months and I really want off this med. Before I started this treament, i was a marathon runner (I ran two marathons this spring, one a month before this all happened). Now if I run more than 10 minutes at a time I need to sleep for hours during the middle of the day.
Other than beta blockers and ssri's what types of medications are out there for someone like me?
This discussion is related to celexa for arrhythmia?.
Long before the race, i had experienced very pronounced arrhythmias when i lie down. If I lie down to read or go from standing to lying in a yoga class, my heart will race...pause...double beat...pause...race..etc. The only way to stop this arrhythmia is to sit or stand up and it goes straight back to regular sinus rhythm.
After the low blood pressure, I made an appointment with my family doc who did an ekg. He found both bradychardia with a marked sinus arrhythmia and referred me to a cardiologist.
I failed my tilt table test, went into a junctional rhythm after the test that felt pretty scary. The administering doc ordered an ep study during which I had bouts of v-tach, atrial fib and junctional rhythms. He was unable to find anything to oblate so he sent me home with a 30-day event monitor and a beta blocker.
The beta blocker dropped my blood pressure even lower. upper 70's over 50's. When he got the results back from the monitor, he had his nurse call me that day to double my beta blocker based on the frequent bouts of a-fib and v-tach he saw. I told her I didn't think I could tolerate that seeing how low my pressure had gotten.
He agreed and put me on celexa 20mg a day.
I have never had any kind of depression or anxiety or panic attacks so I was nervous about going on an ssri. Its been absolute hell. I haven't stayed awake all day since I started it six weeks ago. My face is generally numb and my cardiac symptoms have gotten worse if anything.
He suggested I be admitted for a load of norpace but after reading about the risks of anti-arrhythmia drugs, I was skeptical until I could talk more with him about the severity of my diagnosis.
My cardiologist doesn't have any kind of an appt open for months and I really want off this med. Before I started this treament, i was a marathon runner (I ran two marathons this spring, one a month before this all happened). Now if I run more than 10 minutes at a time I need to sleep for hours during the middle of the day.
Other than beta blockers and ssri's what types of medications are out there for someone like me?
This discussion is related to celexa for arrhythmia?.
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I would probably seek a second opinion. There are tons of meds out there for people with arrhythmias. Celexa is a drug that is known to prolong the QT interval and is on the QT Drug List. (google it) I can't imagine that a doc would prescribe this for arrhythmias, my guess is he is probably thinking your problems are related to anxiety (who wouldn't be anxious when they are nearly passing out!) and trying to dismiss this as nothing since you are healthy. Try to see an Electrophysiologist-EP (heart rhythm specialist) who won't dismiss your symptoms. My daughter was on Celexa for OCD and it made her low blood pressure worse. Our family has a heart rhythm disorder called Long QT Syndrome and the first thing our EP did was recommend that she stop taking the Celexa.
Good luck
I've never had any kind of anxiety. I'm the stereotypical runner/yoga teacher that annoys everybody with my energy, exercise and diet. Since I've been off the beta blocker, my blood pressure has come back up to the mid 90's/mid50's but I'm not sure if its the celexa or the absence of beta blocker causing this.
I was thinking about requesting a consultation with a neurologist since they were unable to find any cause during the ep study.
I was up all day Thursday without any kind of nap and as a result went to bed yesterday at 4:30pm and slept until 7:30 this mornning.