Amnesia symptoms and conditions

Hello I'm a 41 year old female, and I took Lipitor 20 mgs for 6 months about two years ago. When I called my doctor's office to complain about side effects they told me it couldn't be the Lipitor because I had been taking it for a month already, and would have had problems before that. I eventually took myself off of the drug 5 months later. Here are some of the side effects I experienced:
Itchy fingertips, increased blood pressure, 30lb weight gain, shaky hand writing, acne, poor driving skills, poor memory, hair loss, "frozen joints", IBS, incontinence, low grade fever, itchy feet, numb toes, numb hands, foggy brain, joint pain, muscle pain, foot pain, plantar pain, dizzy, jaw pain, back and neck pain, week ankles and wrists, nasal allergies, skin rashes, migraines, heartburn, Increase in Astham, heart palpitations, knee pain, difficulty standing up from sitting position, difficulty climbing stairs, water retention alternating in feet, hands, arms and legs, almost constant taste of bile in my mouth.
These are only the ones I can remember. Two years down the road everything but the muscle and joint pain and weakness is gone. even those have improved a lot. I stopped taking the Lipitor and lost all 30lbs I had gained on it, without dieting, in a months time. I still have two toes on each foot that are partially numb. I have trouble climbing stairs, and getting up from a sitting position. I can do both, but I move slowly while doing them. The pain in my muscles and joints drives me crazy, but I'm grateful that the rest of the symptoms have cleared up. My doctor never believed me about my symptoms, and neither does my new doctor really. Went to the emergency room for asthma that was not responding to my inhaler, and they were about to let me go home when I mentioned to the doctor that I had been on Lipitor. Suddenly a huge battery of tests were ordered including a CT scan and a stress test. When I asked the doctor why he said that they just wanted to be sure that it wasn't something other than asthma. Why did they do that after hearing about the Lipitor? Do they know something? Are there doctors who believe that statins are killing and seriously injuring people? I'm so angry. Even as I sit here typing I know when I stand up I will have massive amounts of pain that I will have to "walk off". My quadriceps have not recovered, and remain ridiculously weak.
If I can stop one other person from going through this I will be happy. Thanks everyone for taking the time to list your symptoms. It makes me feel better to know that someone believes me, and knows what I am going through.

POLL: If you or your child have been adversely affected by Singulair could you please reply to this and let me know what ethnicity you are and skin tone. (fair, med., dark, etc.) I'm interested in the demographics of this drugs effects.
Thank you!

My sister was started on Lamectal several months ago. She THOUGHT that she was feeling OK except that her mouth had begun twitching uncontrollably. Her family thought that she was acting "kinda weird". She saw a neurologist about the twitching and to make sure it was not Parkinsons Disease or such. It was not so the Psychiatrist put her on Cogentin. After less than a week she was not sleeping, had slurred speech and was running into walls. She was cooking spaghetti for breakfast and began seeing witches and angels and talking on cell phones that were not ther. We took her to the hospital and all tests were negative. The Cogentin was stopped, the hallucinations stopped and her balance improved but she remained with the following symptoms...she had difficulty mentally focusing on anything for longer than about 5 minutes, blurred vision and forgetfulness. I sent a note to her Psychiatrist and the Lamectal was stopped. She has been off of it for a few weeks now and says that she has large periods of "missing time" or amnesia for events of the past several months since she began taking the Lamectal. Her speech has returned to normal and she is focused again...

From Italy in 2003 - special note regarding psychiatric side effect of Singulair. ( I do not guarantee the translation. I did my best.)

From Italy 2003.

The data available in purpose in literature are insufficient. In England (1), after a year from the commercialization of drug (1998) the CSM/MCA had already brought back 44 report of insomnia, but not of other neuropsichiatriche reactions. Zapatero ET to. (2) in the 2000 they have described the case of a child of nine years, treated with montelukast for rhinitis and bronchial asthma that, after 4 days of therapy, has manifested cefalea, feeling unsteady, agitation, aggressiveness and nocturnal terror. The symptoms have been resolved after discontinuing montelukast. According to the data supplied from the data bank of the WHO near the Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC) 497 reports were submitted of neuropsichiatriche reactions from montelukast, for a total of 680 ADR. Those more frequently marked ones have been: insomnia (107), nervousness (52), sleepiness (47) and paranoia (41). They are moreover present 8 report of amnesia and 7 thought disorders.

http://www.gruppogif.org/download/GIFsem12003.pdf

I've beentaking Ambien for several years and haven't had any terrible adverse effects. I've had some amnesia after drinking alcohol and taking Ambien, but my memory usually returns by the next day. I've also had muscle twitches and weakness & went to a neurologist for testing, but they found nothing wrong. I figured it was probably the Ambien. I stopped it for 2 weeks, once, but still had some of the symptoms. I've thought about trying to stop again, but I need to weigh the pros and cons. I actually sleep now, and generally have a lot more energy than in the past. I'm on a regular sleep schedule and can get 6-8 hours of sleep per night. I think I'll just deal with the side effects.

I had a minor surgery done and they stealthily injected Versed. I was not anxious in the slightest bit until they gave me this poison. Since then I have had SEVERE anxiety and panic attacks. While I did not have amnesia until after they had given me 7 mls. (an overdose) along with Propofol and other drugs, I was completely compliant with whatever they told me to do, against my will. I endured their nasty comments about me and was unable to defend myself, being almost paralyzed by Versed. It was a nightmare! My anxiety level has still not returned to normal after almost 2 years. This is a very bad drug.

PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS WITH THIS MEDICATION. Shortly after taking one Avelox pill, I began to have trouble understanding what my husband was saying to me. Thinking that I must be really tired, I took a nap. When I woke up an hour later, I didn't know who I was, where I was or what day it was. VERY SCARY. After 5 - 10 minutes of just sitting there trying to figure out what was going on, I began to recognize the curtains in my bedroom and gradually my memories started to return. Needless to say, I didn't take any more AVELOX. Several days later, a bright red rash appeared on my arms, legs and torso. I went to the ER and was given Prednisone and Benadryl. It helped, but the rash is not completely cleared up yet. I feel that amnesia is an unacceptable side effect for an antibiotic!

I have MS and have been taking Ambien for a few months now to help me sleep. My husband and daughter told me this morning that last night I got up from bed and was completely naked and walked out into the living room. They said I looked very wasted and was looking all around the house for some soda and them went back to bed. I can't remember any of this. It scares me. what if they were not home, would I of drove to the store naked looking for soda? This is a very dangerous side effect. It only happened one othere time when I got up and was surfing the TV channels looking for a TV program. Again, I don't remeber it happening. I also It is making my MS symptoms worse, I am having more stiffness and spasms along with blurred vision.

I've been taking it on and off for many years. I split the 10mg pills in half and only take it sun-thurs so it gets out of my system on the weekends. I have experienced amnesia, doing things that I don't remember on a couple of occasions. I don't take it until I get into bed but if it doesn't put me to sleep soon I'll get up and do things and then have memory problems. Otherwise, no other side effects.

Amnesia after prolonged use of prednisone, my husband has had this on and off for many years now after having had prednisone in high dosages for years, he also changed a lot and this is permanent, so they now think he is bipolar

I have administered Ambien to patients during hospital stays and I have seen more than approximately 90% of instances where very undesirable and dangerous side effects occured. In my patients the usual pattern is complete amnesia once the med has taken effect or after a short course of 1 or 2 hours of "drop dead" sleep. People experience complete disconnection with their immediate reality they have no idea what is going on usually becoming argumentative and at the least very suspicious of what is going on. Disoriented to place, time, situation. Become angry, often uncooperative and occasionally violent. Always with paranoid ideations and dellusions of persecution. Many times these drug induced symptoms take up to 6 hours to abate and then a persistent mild paranoia may plague the person for hours after.

I took Ambien for about 8 months and in the beginning it was great. I would sleep for 3 to 4 hours at a time uninterrupted (unheard of for me). However after a while I noticed some very unpleasant and embarrassing side effects that include: amnesia, sleep walking, apnea (felt oxygen deprived), headaches, would sometimes wake after sleeping for a while and try to make telephone calls and fall asleep while talking to my son (I can only imagine what he thought), I would have sex with my husband while hallucinating that he was wearing purple capes and had multiple sex organs, I didn't remember these events, I was told the next morning. I only kept taking it 3/4's of a 10 mg. tablet, because I needed to sleep but since I woke up feeling anything but rested I wondered how much I really slept. The most serious side effect happened 2 weeks ago. I woke to use the restroom 3 hours after taking & fell asleep on the toilet for almost an hour. I don't remember getting up but when I did I walked a few feet and collapsed, hit my nose & went into what appeared to my husband to be a seizure when it was most likely brought on by low oxygen intake due to AMBIEN. He thought I stopped breathing and called 911. I know that Ambien caused this and I destroyed all of my prescription and will never take it again. I had no problem stopping it as it almost killed me. I am back to my old self, not sleeping but that's better than permanent sleep. The makers of Ambien must know that this is happening to people but don't disclose it or they feel that advertising 7-10 days of treatment is recommended gets them off the hook. Long term Ambien use is extremely dangerous and may build up toxic levels in your blood but why aren't we told that. I had no addiction to this drug and all of you can stop too. Your just addicted to sleep and I don't blame you. Sleeps a problem for me too now but I will be too scared to ever take anything for it again. Good luck to you all!

i have a rare form of asthma and am often on high doses of intravenous steroids in the hospital. i get every symptom anyone has noted but I actually steroid induced psychosis (i have no mental health problems generally). I have horrifying visual and auditory hallucinatins.

at National Jewish Hospital they treated this with 1o mg valium with each dose of steroids and Depacote. I can't take Depacote any more because of pancreatic symptoms and the valiun alone helps but doesn't resolve the problem.

Plus I lose my vision almost completely. All the other typical symptoms seem more severe (accordinf to my MD's) than usually experienced so apparently you can be extra sensitive to steroids, i have been tried on Prednisone, Mthylprednisone and Dekadron,

Plus, I have had steroid induced myopathy (where the muscles are eaten away) to the pint of not being able to sit or walk.

I have lost 2 inches of height in 2 years.

and worse of all, my brain seems to just take a vacation - i have amnesia for almost everything that happens.

But breathe first - deal with the rest as it comes.

As far as weight - i have gained 28 lbs in 24 hours (the hospital nurse checked me with three scales) and have lost 39 lbs in 2 weeks -trust me - that is not a pretty sight.

I have had insomnia from November through Feb with psychiatrist doing everything they could to put me under.

If I didn't have a lung disease and was not prohibited from doing almost everything there is to do, I could while on Prednisone clean my entire house cleaner than it has ever been, and then probably achieve world peace because I have never felt so capable of accomplishing tasks (ones that are rote mostly) my family has to watch me to keep me from getting up in the middle of the night and doing something stupid.

And I am a health care professional who usually has excellent judgement. I am a nice person who never loses my temper or says an ugly word but while on steroids I am not only totally unreasonable but verbally abusive at times (many times)

the psychosis thought is the one thing that is really terrifying.

....sorry, I meant to say insomnia ....not "amnesia" below here. (Maybe this stuff affected me even more than first explained! :) )

I have been taking Ambien for 5 months. I started realizing last week that my attention has become impaired. I will be listening with great interest to someone and all of a sudden I am gone. I realize what's happened to me by the end of what they are saying but have no idea what they just said. I am normally very sharp and love conversation, but I can't carry a conversation on right now. Also, while I am aware of the conversation, at first and discuss, I can't remember the conversation details by the next day. I also have drastic jerking movements for an hour or so after taking. And, if amnesia of anything that goes on in the evenings after I have taken it.

What drives me crazy are the things that involve my brain. This includes speeking, thinking and comprehending, and memory loss. When I go to talk, instead of saying "vinegar" it comes out "vigenar" for example. People have to tell me things over and over and most of the times very slowly until I have it correctly in my head. It frustrates me so. However, the memory loss is the worst. It as if I have become an amnesia patient. I am currently dating a man that I dated a few years ago. We go places that I think we have never been before. So I start telling him about the place and what I like about the place and I go on and on and then it dawns on me that we have been there together and I feel like an idiot and become so embarrased. Or I start to say something like, "Did we ever go to such and such a place?" and he might say, "No, why?" Now, in my head I'm thinking it was him and actually it might have been another guy, but I can't remember so I have to cover for myself so I say, "Oh, it must have been a dream I had of you." Now the doctor who checked me in for my last hospitalization said, "Well, if you can stand the confusion for a little bit longer and lose some more weight, why not stay on it?" I don't know if it's worth it....