Geodon and xanax

[vickiebeth]

My son is 21 and was given geodon 40 mg an xanax he has had two seizures before starting these meds.I love my doctor but just want 2 and opinion and what I should watch out for?

[persephonedemeter]

There is a cautionary note to alert the doctor if there is a history of seizures on Geodon. I am assuming that your psychiatrist is seeing both you and your son as his patients. ILADVOCATE gave you good advice to address your concern to the doctor. When prescribing meds  or treatment, if there are any concerns or noteworthy precautions regarding the meds or treatment, information like instructions on what to watch out for and information is given along with the prescription of treatment. If the doctor doesn't give any instructions, just ask if there are any precautions, side effects or special instructions on how to take the medications. Technically, he is obligated to give you an answer, and it is basically required that he is knowledgeable about the drug before he prescribes it. It is up to your son whether he agrees to take it or not. It is a matter of informed consent.

So, go ahead and call him up and ask and tell him your concerns.The other thing is you can ask your pharmacist, who is also under obligation by law to give you instructions or advice. With every drug, there are always those inserts with the miniscule print on it detailing the manufacturer's precautions and descriptions of the drug. However, most of the time, I get more valuable information from the nurses, doctors, and pharamacists who administer and dispense the med.

You are always entitled to 2nd opinion. Getting a second opinion is just that. You aren't giving up your doctor, you are just asking for a 2nd eyeball on the issue. The second doctor is basically a consultation, and they usually give you their opinion and will usually report their findings and their opinions to the doctor who is treating you. It is very likely your own doctor has given second opinions himself. It shouldn't hurt your doctor's feelings to ask for another doctor's opinion. I love my psychiatrist too, but there are times when I get a second opinion and times when he even suggest that I get one. When a medication will be of concern to another system in the body, like the heart or women's hormone levels, then he would ask me to be checked out by my primary physician, who usually gets me a consultation with a specialist, and for those examples, a cardiologist and a gynecologist. If your son sees a neurologist for his seizures, then alert the neurologist that he is taking geodon and ask him if there are any impending seizure signs to watch out for of if there are any precautions like not driving. Those are precautionary examples you can even ask your psychiatrist, especially, since they are safety issues.

I was on Geodon for awhile and it didn't cause me any problems for a few months, but it also wasn't able to control my symptoms totally. Later, it did slow down my reflexes and it did cause me visual perception changes, so there were safety issues involved especially with my job and driving. So, he took me off the Geodon, and I didn't have any further problems. Reflexes came back and vision perception came back to normal. Vision perception changes is not a common side effect.

Any side effect, issues or precautions are only listed when and if they are reported back to the FDA or the drug company. When any of those things aren't reported back, then it doesn't get passed on, tallied, documented, and seen as a problem. I don't know if you noticed, but that usually takes time and investigations to see whether it is valid. Think about auto recalls and you know what I mean.

I used the male pronoun as convenience, btw. I am not assuming the gender of your doctor and it is too hard for me to think before coffee to write gender neutral. It sounds like you have a good rapport and  with your doctor and have seen your doctor for awhile, so I doubt it would hurt to ask. I discuss things with all my doctors all the time. It promotes trust, especially when it clues everyone in on how each other thinks. When I was really sick and unable to think well, my doctor wrote down what he told me on a slip of paper so I wouldn't forget, like a list of things to watch out for and to call him about or the name of the drug so I can look it up later or show to the pharmacist, when I was making a decision to take it.

[ILADVOCATE]

  It would depend on the cause of the seizures. Also some medications can lower the seizure threshold including many antipsychotics but only a doctor or psychiatrist would understand this in full. It would be worthwhile to discuss these concerns with them and what the appropriate means of follow up would be.