Head numbness

[theo777]

Hi Dr. Gould, I am a 23 year old male. My question is about withdrawing from psychiatric medications. I was on 1200 mg of trileptal twice daily and 160 mg of geodon nightly. I withdrew of off the trileptal first and the geodon second. As i started withdrawing off of the trileptal i started to feel numb in my head. It is now about nine months later and the same annoying feeling is still there. My question is if withdrawing from the medication in the way i did was the cause of this numbness. I was on this medication for about six months prior to that with no numbness or bad side effects, just the inability so sit still and focus. My current psychiatrist has me on saphris 5 mg twice daily and says that this should take the numbness away, but it has been about 2 1/2 weeks so far and still no results. He also said that the medications i was taking or withdrew from was not the cause behind the numbness. I have also been to a neurologist who ran some tests and could not find anything wrong. I would like your opinion on what you think this numbness is and any advice that you would have for me. Another thing that has been bothering me is the fact that I was taking 160 mg of geodon at night instead of 80 mg twice a day, which is the highest reccomended daily dose. I am wondering if that was the cause of the numbness as I was coming off of the trileptal, since it lowers the amount of geodon in the blood. My reasoning and tell me if it is flawed is that as the trileptal came down the amount of geodon in the blood went up and it was too much and caused the numbness. I am really worried at this point and really need some help and answers. Please answer my question and I will get back to you with any other details. Thank you.

[theo777]

Hi Dr. Gould, I have found something that works for my so called numbness. It is called Fanapt. My psychiatrist gave it to me because i had success with haldol and he said that these two drugs are chemically similar. My only question is if i am at risk of developing tardive dyskinesia because i have taken so many different drugs in a very short period of time. I have taken Geodon, Haldol, Saphris, Risperdal, Seroquel, and Fanapt in just a year and a few months. Also just knowing that Fanapt can cause Tardive Dyskinesia scares me and would have me constantly paranoid if it is going to start. I wanna know if it is a good decision to take this drug until my numbness completely subsides and then stop it. I will bring all of this to the attention of my psychiatrist, but i just wanted to know what you think. Thank you.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

I wish I could give you a definitive answer but I don't believe there is one at this point in the science of these medications...You have been on high doses of medications that effect many chemical systems in your brain.  It's possible that your theory is correct and it is related to the changing concentrations of these two chemical agents, but no one really knows for sure.  Many peculiar symptoms are reported in situations like this, and sorting out the anxiety effect from the chemical effect is almost impossible.  You might talk to your psychiatrist about an experiment that could give you more information.  Go back on low doses, tempoarily, of either of those medications to see if your numbness symptom decreases.