Levaquin and extreme anxiety

I took 2 500mg pills of levaquin and within a few short hours felt extreme anxiety, my heart was racing, i was having depressed thoughts including death/dying and didn't sleep for 48hrs while i was on this medication. it has now been 3 days since my last pill and i am still shaky with anxiety, have no appetite, but am finally able to sleep a little bit.

this is the most horrible medicene i have ever been on - don't ever take it!

It has been three weeks since my daughter and I have taken our last pills of Levaquin. She still has terrible pain in her hands and has suffered from severe headaches. I have all of the symptoms of a heart attack and stroke in fact, I spent several hours at the ER and went through many tests. No heart attack or stroke and sent me home. My son and his wife did research and found out all of my symptoms are from taking levaquin. My heart rate regularly is never over 65 and it jumped to 117. My blood pressure went up to 209/106. The top of my head went numb from front to back and also numb in the back on the bottom half. So bad at times I thought I was going to faint. I have word recall problems, diarrhea, strange taste, vision problems, had an irregular heart beat, extreme anxiety, upset stomach, nausea, loss of appetite, fear of dying, heels on my feet hurt bad, sweats, muscles twitching, swelling in my throat and made me hoarse, can't sleep.
Levoquin is not for me!!!!! I am so thankful to my kids for looking it up so I know what I am fighting against. I am also thankful to all of you for writing it here so that we can try to help each other.

About 4 months ago I was put on a 10 day treatment of 500 mg Levaquin, because of an on going sinus infection. I took the pills for 5 days and experienced muscle twitching, weakness, dizzyness, upset stomache, irregular fast heart beat, extreme anxiety, I had this weird tingling numb feeling from my knees down and couldnt sleep at all. I called my doctor after 2 days of the medication and told her about my side affects and she told me to continue the medication. After 5 days went by I looked up this web site and was shocked to hear that I wasnt alone. I threw away the rest of the medicine and prayed I wouldnt have long lasting affects. I continued to have muscle twitching, cramping, and weakness for the next 3 months and my leg muscles would ache and tighten by themselves. I have played sports my entire life and had just gotten done my season of college basketball before I got sick and after I took this medication I could barely walk up the stairs without feeling like I was going to pass out. I was in and out of the hospital having blood tests they tested me for lyme disease, and did 2 cat scans of my head. I went to a neurologist and had tests done worrying it was ms or als and they sent me to have an MRI of the brain and my neuroligist asked me if I had been on any medications and I told him levaquin. After 3 months of crying myself to sleep being put on about 8 different medications to control my anxiety my neurologist diagnosed me with BFS. BFS is a neaurological disease that affects your nerves. It is not life threatening but many people suffer because of the anxiety that comes along with the disease and I get muscle twitching all over my body and feel tired most of the time. It took me to get a long time to feel even a bit better but I began taking magnesiun, B12, Potassium, and other ones to help nerve function and a mild anxiety medication and I have felt a little better. Nobody believed me when I told them my illness was from levaquin but after I was diagnosed I realized that just 5 pills may have ruined my life. Now today I have my good days and bad. I just turned 21 but I cant drink or have caffiene because of BFS. I met the love of my life about 3 weeks after I got out of the hospital and I knew we were meant to meet because his step father had passed away a month before. His step father took levaquin for an infection and his kidneys and liver failed 11 days later and he passed away. I was so devastated when my boyfriend told me about this and called my parents to tell them how SCARED I WAS. I am dealing with what this medication has done to me by staying positive, and telling as many people as possible about how bad this medication is. I wish I would have rad this site before I took those 5 pills but I didnt. Levaquin should not be on the market and I will pray for those who have had the same heartbreaking experience as myself.

I started taking Levaquin 750 7 days ago for a sinus infection. About an hour after taking it I began to feel extreme anxiety and depression, an overwhelming feeling. I suffer from anxiety and depression anyway and I have had this reaction to paxil before therefore I thought it was all in my head. I also had trouble sleeping but there was alot going on in my life at the time and thought that it was anxiety from that. I took pill for the next four days, the simptoms got better, but were still there. I did not take the fith pill because my daughter's 13th birthday party was coming up and I had to feel better for that so I skipped taking it for two days. I just took the last pill today, and it is terrible. The anxiety, the depression, I have a normal blood pressure of 90 over 60, it is 125 over 80, which is high for me. I will never take this pill again, the side effects are terrible, and the sinus infection is still present.

After 14 months of suffering from Levaquin I am getting worse.

I have had sore ankles and achilles heels for months but last two days this has increased to where I can't walk on them. My shoulders, arms, hands, legs have incresed in pain 50 % in last two days. All I can do is moan, all night in bed and even during day now.

Just loaded up on Lorazepam today.

Also, my nerve system has been severely damaged.

I am over 50. I know what my body feels. Everything involving my nerves has changed from the first 24 hours I took this stuff back in Dec. 2005. My skin feels prickly. My sensitivity to cold and heat is so off and unbearable.

I get haywire feeling all through me all the time. My heart jumps. My ears pop. I feel extreme anxiety.
Everything connected to my nerves seems effected. I get odd bladder feelings. Penile soreness like a nerve twinge.
My intestinal tract is shot. Everything from gastritis to gerd to middle intestinal inflammation. I have diagnosed tendinitis, torn rotator cuff, fractured vertebrae, neck disc damage, etc.
I am low in B-12 to 100 level. Also low in Male Hormone.Have acquired bronchial asthma, sinusits, scarring in left lung.

I do not know how much more I can take. And it all started that week I took Levaquin and "no other medicine".

Hadn't taken any medicne for years previous to this.

I called Ortho-McNeill to complain and they asked what happened to me. I told them I was given this after being diagnosed with beginning bronchitis and low electrolytes at our local ER. The lady on the Ortho McNeil complaint line told me " they ( the ER ) should have never given you Levaquin when you had diagnosed electrolyte imbalance."

She also said they were aware of many complaints of tendon damage.

And no attorney will even touch my case. Go figure. This country is crazy.

500 mg for 5 days UTI Burning pain in upper and lower extremities, tin tast in mouth, burning eyes, hair falling out, severe constipation, dry skin, muscle twitches, tremors, extreme anxiety...FDA does not respond to reports..I think the adverse drug effects are ignored because of profits.. they are not interested in the true # of individuals who are seriously hurt by this drug..pharmaceudical companies are too powerful...and Dr are thus not well informed so they prescribe dangerous drugs without even knowing how they can harm their patients...

Guest 33599 and 33598 and others.
I have been reading your postings.

In Dec. 2005 I was given a weeks worth of Levaquin. Withing first hour of first two pills I passed out on ride home from our local ER. This may or may not have been a reaction to the Levaquin, it may have been what the ER doc says was a "vagal" response.
But first night home after another dose of this Levaquin next day my shoulders and arms burned so bad and hands went numb and cold and insides went haywire with shooting pains and bladder feeling haywire and twitching all over, itching, complete insomnia with extreme anxiety and a few quick little nightmares. Scared out of my 54 year old male wits.

Next morning crawled to couch, ate half a piece of toast. Within minutes abdominal insides started to get sore and this intensified to point of holding stomach . Then body started getting weak from already weak feeling of flu before this. I felt like I was going into shock. I WAS going into shock.

Couldn't even hold hands up from laying down position. Started to see spots, freaking out, called ambulance agian. Went to local ER agin. Told them I felt like I was going to die. They did blood, urine, heart tests. Found nothing. Gave me atavan and when this calmed me down ssent me home.
Starting right then and there I was physically devastated. Went back to ER one or more times again that week.

Each time I would tell them I couldn't walk, eat, sleep, nerves fried...pains in shoulders arms. Soon they were calling in Psyche ward. How humiliating.
EACT TIME I TOLD THEM...the only medicine I was taking was this Levaquin. They NEVER ONCE said to stop taking this. Not knowing anything I kept taking it for next 4 days. 7 days total.

I didn't put the two together. I didn't know. Trusted them completely. Trusted them to know if I should stop taking this poison. And they were told each time I went there that thiswas the only drug I was taking.
Looking back, I think they were completely uneducated about this drug. Maybe the actual Docs in ER knew only about the "immediate" reactions to this drug and not the systemic ones that showed up in different ways within forst day or two such as burning shoulder and arm pain, nerve system problems etc. Gastrointestinal as well.

To this day every doctor I mention this too angrily denies Levaquin could have done this to me.

On top of so many tearful truths about the suffering I have been through...is this wall of denial with these doctors.

Here on the internet ( right there for these not wanting to know doctors to see ) are "thousands" of testimonials about the "same" symptoms by all of us soon after ingesting this poison.

The FDA would not have issued that warning in 2004 to pharmacies etc. if they didn't know something like what we are all screaming to the world we know. Tragically.

I could print up a 6 inch thick binder full of reports ( including the FDA one ) and studies and testimony from thousands like you..throw it on the desk of a denying doctor in any field and they will not even look at it.

It's like this information about Levaquin doesn't exist and they do not want to look at it when it's placed right in front of their face! What kind of a tragically sick injustice is that?

I wish we could prosecute every doctor who keeps saying Levaquin doesn't do the things you and I know it does. You and I have done more research on this drug than they have!

Of course a certain percentage of these reports may not be totally accurate...even the most stringent scientific studies have flaws. But the sheer number of these Levaquin reports and the basic similarities in them are staggering in their obvious implications.

You don't dismiss tens of thousands of complaints by sufferers. And I guarantee you that for every person that has a computer and has reported the same scary symptoms suffered after taking Levaquin, that there are 10 other people out there at least who don't ever go on a computer and don't know where to go to report this..and many like me for months...who didn't even know that Levaquin may have been the cause of all my medical maladies.

What you are seeing here on the computer is the tip of the iceberg!

This could turn into a national scandal if it were properly reported and the true numbers of victims could be traced.

Vioxx killed 50,000. They know this. And it should have been a crime that the makers of that drug and the professionals who kept prescribing and selling this drug even after they were hearing that thousands of patients were complaining about it...kept pushing and using this killer drug.

Exactly like all of you, I had the burning pain, my shoulders, arms, even hands...my muscles, knees, ankles all hurt and still hurt and are weak. I get colder than I ever have..then kind of weird sweats. fell like I am going to faint so muc even one YEAR later. So so so sick feeling all of the time. Can't even remember all the horrible feelings I have. Financially ruined. Doctors treat me like you know what. Most doctors do not have patience as they are so booked and always seemed rushed and tired at same time. They have ways of getting you out of their care. Scheduling your visits farther and farther apart. Chastizing you hoping you will leave them. Constantly recommending psych care and anti-depressants and being short during your visit. Their tone and body language and these other things are so clear.

But they are very clever ways get rid of you as a patient without officially doing this in a way that could be catagorized as unethical...so you can't sue them.

It's like a landlord wanting you out and doing everything within the law to make you feel so miserable you will leave on your own.

Cynical? Oh, absolutely. But its' the truth in my case.

I am still so sick that even as I write this I feel like I am going to faint. I have so many other symptoms now that you wouldn't believe it. Red, itchy rashes on my legs and back of elbows that come and go. A wheeze in my right lung that I have to see a pulmonary guy about. Feeling my pulse so strong it shakes my body on left side. Constant shaking. Nerves seem actually damaged in their heightened sensitivity.
I don't even sweat right. I feel so anxiety ridden I can't tell you. Sick to my stomach constantly ( lost 35 pounds in first 3 months ) couldn't eat. Metallic taste in mouth. Swollen throat feeling...doctors dismissed this as the didn't feel lymph swelling, but GI doc looked in my mouth the other day and said "your tonsils are inflammed."

I keep telling doctors I feel like I am being poisoned. They look at me as if I am completely crazy and paranoid. Especially when their tests don't show anything.

I feel like breaking down and crying so much which I have done. And I'm a 55 year old male that never ever ever acted like this in my first 54 years. Raised a family, worked, married to same first wife for 25 years.
Never saw a psychiatrist in my life. Never a drinking, drug or smoking problem.

I have been told to lie to hospitals ( by one doctors nurse and another med professional I don't want to mention here because I am still seeing her/him) ) and say I am homicidal or suicidal to get in to the hospital because based on my tests not showing anything and a pcp who will quit believing their is anything more wrong with me besides my sanity...I cannot get any more specialized/all at once, more technical studies.

The getting in through the psych back door does not work for me because it isn't true. I am not going to lie to get in a hospital. I would think that the truth that I feel like I am dying would be enough. Once I lie and I get caught at it I would never be taken seriously again.

But I would like toxixcology tests, especially for the chemical florine, which I have read is the culprit in the Flouroquinolones family of antibiotics poison.
I would like an endocrinologist to test me in every way they can.
I would like someone who specialises in nerve damge take a look at my entire central nervous system.

I know money is the biggest obstacle as I have none. But I pray constantly that somehow, somwhere, someday, someone will find something that explains why I feel like I am dying one year after I took a weeks worth of Levaquin.
And that I can finally prove that I am not just crazy. I will tell you a truth here. I fear I will be committed as my symptoms seem to be getting worse not better. And when they don't find anything in the basic medical exams...they really go after you in labeling you mentally ill.

More and more, my complaints are met with silence...and then within minutes a person from the psych ward comes in.

Dear God. This is truly anightmare. If I was a screen wrioter it would be a great movie that would truly scare viewers.

Just imagine getting an illness and having your body go haywire and feel like you are going to die..yet no one can find anything to explain it...and so they all start the process of committing you. To feel this way physically and to also fear this shoving into the mentally ill realm happening at the same time is a real life nightmare. One that unfortunately I am living. And if you want to read about thousands of others feeling like this ... just type in Fibromyalgia and go to that big board sometime. That board is a living nightmare also. Thousands of people all looking for cures and sympathy to very similar hard or impossible to diagnose illness's that are ravaging their bodies like me.

Sorry for presenting such a bleak pictre here....but it's the truth. It is happening all over the country. Just look at how many Fibromyalgia boards and groups and meetings there are.

God help you and I.

I am two days into this medication, i started to have tremors, the shakes, feel nausa and dizzy. I am so anxious and feel extreme anxiety. Like I needed to go the ER for a psy evaluation. I was put on it for a sinus infection. I thought I was going crazy and thought well just let me go look it up on the web, I am so glad I came here. it was only by chance, I feel truly sorry for any people that do have a psy history and are put on this drug, it will drive thme over the edge.

Took first dose of levaquin on Sunday. By monday extremely anxious with chest pain. Sunday evening chest pain continued monday with a anxious feeling. Sharp pain and ache donwn the arm on occasion. Tookn tylenol pm to help sleep. Took another dose this AM and have extreme anxiety and chest pain. I will not take another pill after reading this website information. Thank you everyone!

I took Levaquin for five days in early April as a preventative after minor surgery. I had been prescribed a 7 day course, but stopped after I suspected the side effects were from the Levaquin. It all began with a low grade fever, then extreme anxiety, mental confusion, depression, intestinal gas, loss of appetite, weakness, sweating, heart palpitations, and scariest of all, central nervous system disturbances, strange currents in my left arm and leg, twitches, shaking, jitters and vision problems. I was the most scared I have ever been in my life. I went to my GP and he told me it was "self-perpetuated" because the half life of the drug had passed and the effects should have subsided quickly. (But he was surprised to see my liver enzymes were elevated even after the drug was supposed to have left my body...hmmm.) Well, I was in pure hell for almost three weeks after stopping the drug, desperately wanting to get better, but it had a grip on me that only someone who has experienced it can understand.
I went to a psychiatrist and a neurologist. Both told me it could have something to do with the GABA receptors in the brain. My biggest fear was that it had caused permanent harm. Well, I'm happy to report that now a month and a half later, I feel like myself again. It was a gradual improvement, but it finally subsided at the end of the third week.
I just wanted to share my story in case there is someone who is as worried as I was a month ago, seeking comfort in this forum. (There is not much comfort, I know.) But although everyone is different and the side-effects run the gamut, at least it seems to go away in time for most people. Of course I'm not completely sure that there was no permanent damage...but I feel pretty confident that my body got rid of this poison. My liver enzymes went back to normal as well.
I feel each of us must report everything Levaquin has done to us to Medwatch (the FDA), to our doctors (although they will probably doubt you), and to anyone you care about in case they are ever given this over-prescribed time-bomb. Levaquin is a life saving drug, but it should only be prescribed for people in dire need. It is being marketed to doctors as a preventative and for minor infections, and that is where the real problem is. Ortho-McNeil knows more than they tell the doctors, I'm convinced. There are just too many of us. Imagine all the people who never figure out that the Levaquin caused thier ailments! Or they believe thier doctors who say "It's all in your head."
I hope my story has been of help...and to all who suffer...hang in there. It takes time, but chances are it WILL go away.

On Monday, April 7 I went to my doctor because I had developed bronchial infection and a nasty cough. My doctor, to whom I have been going for at least 15 years, prescribed levaquin. Monday night, around 8 pm, I took my first dose. The levaquin was in a vial with 7 500 mg tablets, one per day. By 8:30 pm I began to have stomach pains, nausea, and a headache. I felt lousy. I went to bed around 9 pm because I felt so bad. The symptms got worse. By 11 pm I had rapid heartbeat, extreme perspiration (I was soaked), complete sleeplessness.........could not sleep at all, muscle pains and aches, extreme anxiety, face welling, continued nausea and stomach pain. I didn't know what was going on! At around 2 am I awoke and went to my PDR The Family Guide to Prescription Drugs, 6th Edition, Three Rivers Press, NY. On Page 319 of this book I found levaquin, and under the section: Most Important Fact About This Drug, I read the following, "Levaquin has been known to cause dangerous allergic reactions as soon as you take the first dose." This blew my mind..........if I had read this first, I would never have taken this poison. Cyanide also has been known to cause dangerous reactions as soon as you take the first dose!!! What are these pharmaceutical companies and these doctors trying to do with us? Make us their guinea pigs?? On Tuesday, I was completely washed out.......no energy at all, nauseated, in pain, shivering, heart beating like crazy, restlessness, huge headache.....very sick. I called my doctor and he told me to not take another pill!! Believe me, I didn't need a doctor to tell me not to take another pill...........he then proceeded to prescribe an antibiotic which I had taken a few years ago when I had pneumonia, which caused to ill effects, and which took care of the problem quickly and well. Why in the world, didn't he give me the same medication?? Could it be that the doctors are wined and dined by the pharmaceutical companies to encourage them to push certain new drugs and try them on their patients? This levaquin is new, no generic......costs alot........the one that I was finally prescribed is 10-15 years old, generic, doesn't cost much...........could that be the bottom line? If so, we all had better read our prescription guides very carefully and question our doctors very thoroughly before taking any new medication. The Prescription guide places levaquin in the quinolone family of drugs, there are five other drugs in this family: cipro, floxin, maxaquin, noroxin, penetrex. I have advised my pharmacy to place all of these poisons in my profile so I will never be prescribed these drugs again. Today is Sunday, March 13, and today I am starting to feel like myself again. The bronchitis has been relieved because of the new oldie but goodie medication...........and today the effects of the levaquin have finally startd to diminish. This drug took one week out of my life........one painful, nauseous, anxious, restless, tired, sleepless week. It's a shame what the medical and pharmaceutical professions are doing to their patients.........making guinea pigs out of us.........if we are stupid enough to let them.