Mental focus symptoms and conditions

I've been on lipitor and other generic forms of it for the last 8 years since the age of 26. I started on 10mg then 20mg and later 40mg. About 4 years ago I started with severe stomach cramps. The pain is so bad that I have to go home in the middle of the day, I can't walk or sit straight the pain is that bad and NOTHING helps. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would probably put this at a 7 or 8. I would also be nauseous and be really tired. I have had countless opinions and tests done and doctors keep telling me it is an "enigma" and there's nothing wrong with me. We've treated it through coeliac diet, exercise, lots of water, but it never helped. About a week ago I stopped drinking my meds by pure chance. I have not had one incidence of stomach ache. My doctor tells me that it's not possible for the lipitor to be the cause. I am sure he's wrong. Has anyone had a similar experience?

It does not agree with me. Took 3mg about an hour before bed. Fell asleep with little effort, then awoke, wide-awake with heart palpitations, anxiety, and total lack of mental focus. Would return to sleep, only to wake again in less than an hour. All the while, in and out of wild, vivid, hallucinogenic-like dreams. This continued all night. Not very restful. This was time-release melatonin, 3mg. I am on no other medication. This drug is obviously not as "side-effect free" as it's said to be. I will not use it again.

After having all my wisdom teeth out, I took Meprozine when I felt I needed it, in half-doses after the first day, and only for a few days in all.
When I took it, I was easily startled, jumpy, and sensitive to being touched, especially unexpectedly. My eyes did not focus as they normally would, and I was mentally unfocused, too. I didnt attempt to drive while taking it, but Im sure that would have been a mistake if I had, because I think my reaction times were affected. When I dropped anything while on Meprozine, my heart would race as I watched it fall, and I was never able to catch it. I might have been a bit clumsier, too. I was glad when I got down to just Ibuprofeen after the first few days!

I'm male and 34 yrs. old and 168 lbs. I've used Toprol XL 50 mg for almost 10 months now. There's got to be a better drug than this. On the first 4 weeks, I experienced sporadic nightmares and waking-up with cold sweats. I gained 12 lbs immediately, had difficulty getting up from bed in th morning, mild depression, leg pains, low sex drive. On some occassions, I'd feel incoherent and having difficulty making quick decisions. I guess that's also related to loss of mental focus. It came to a point in the following weeks when I left town for the weekend and forgetting my Norvasc and Toprol. I thought two days wont hurt. The 2nd day, my heart-beat sored to almost 130 bpm. My BP was 173/108. I had ice-pick chest pains, palpitations and shortness of breath. I wound up in the emergency room. The doc at the hospital suspected my heart went cold-turkey on Toprol XL. They then gave me the same dosage and an hour later along with Norvasc got me under control. I don't like this med. I was told by some doctors , once you're in it, its tough to get out of it. It is something I'll have to take for the rest of my life. Also, stopping the med may cause cardiac arrest. Dunno if that's true. I did try spliiting my Toprol in half and it has reduced the side-effects on me. I still want out of it though. Anyone having the same dillema?

I'm a 40 year old male, diagnosed with high BP (148/110) and was placed on Cozaar (25). One month later placed on Toprol XL (25). Since then the side effects have been -
Sleepy (yawn, stretch, scratch, snore)
Loss of Mental Focus (I'm male, it was small enough before and now it's even smaller. The mental focus people...)
MUSCLE PAIN! Pecs, both sides but mostly the left. From deep muscle throbbing to pin-prick ouches. Left arm, follows the large bones (deep pain.) Lower back pain but hey, that may not be from the Toprol.
Oddly, sexual function has been helped. Sexual *drive* has gone down though. (Hey, my wife is 10 years older than me so she's ok) ;)

I hate this lethargic, crampy feeling. All my reading has shown to not quit Toprol cold-turkey but do a weekly dosage reduction down to 12.5 for two weeks before stopping. I'll see my doc in a couple of days to discuss this further.

Sidebar: EKG, Stress test show that my BP is reduced but not while exercising. So there's a fine line between side effects and prevention of High BP. Best of luck ladies and gents,
D

I have been on Tegretol since 1999, 800mg daily (2 pills, twice a day, with food) to treat two grand mal and several petit mal seizures I had throughout that year. Since that time I've definitely noticed drowsiness initially, a lack of mental focus, loss of both long and short term memory (I can't remember a thing any more, so I have to write everything down within two minutes otherwise it's just gone) as well as occasional spasms of my right eyelid and calves. I get mild anxiety attacks when I forget to take my meds, so I'm afraid to totally go off it or reduce the dosage myself.

Good luck to everyone else dealing with seizure disorder / epilepsy.

- RQ, Vancouver, Canada

I just wanted to add to the few positive experiences here.

Recently, I had an intense cough which one night led to some kind of injury to my rib. I decided to go to an Urgent Care doctor who ordered x-rays. A radiologist discovered what appeared to be a small infiltrate in my lower left lung. Suspecting that I may have actually had a mild case of pneumonia, the doctor put me on a seven-day course of 500mg Levaquin to rule out the possibility of something more serious.

I am four days and four doses into the course and have experienced only mild side effects. It feels as thought the Levaquin deminishes my energy levels a bit, slight difficulty in mental focus within the first few hours after dosage and a couple of mild night sweats have been noted. Other than that, there have been no ill effects to speak of. I suspect that this site has become a collecting pool of negative experiences. There are no doubt many, many others like myself who experience little to no side effects.