Omeprazole and anxiety

I have been on this medication for 5 days now for acid reflux (or at least, that is what the dr. assumes I have. The doctor told me to take two 20mg pills in the morning before breakfast, and it seems to have helped some, since the Pepsid prescription did not seem to help me. I also am getting terrible pains on the side of my neck, and my throat hurts. Also have an ear ache that feels like an icepick being stuck in the canal. I also have a red spot now above eyelid like a rash, and all day i feel anxiety. I don't know if I should quit taking this. The stomach burning was terrible and is why I was put on this med. to begin with. So I am afraid if I quit taking this, the stomach burning will return. The dr. said 2 weeks of this, but I don't think i will last that long.

DO NOT TAKE THIS POISON!! PURE POISON...ANXIETY,DEPRESSION,CANT BREATH..THIS NEEDS TO BE BROUGHT TO THE FDA..FOR FURTHER RESEARCH..THIS IS WORSE THAN ANY DRUG OUT THERE..I THOUGHT I WAS GOING CRAZY BUT THEY JUST PRESCRIBE YOU ANTI-DEPRESSANTS..DOCTORS WILL LIE TO YOUR FACE SAYING THERE IS NO KNOWN SIDE EFFECTS! DO NOT RISK IT!

After reading all of the comments, I am embarrassed to say that I have taken omeprazole for the past 2 years. Originally, I began taking it for nausea from GERD. I began taking it soon after the death of my cousin (as I figured the anxiety from her death caused my stomach issues). I began to become depressed shortly after, which I also attributed to her death, financial issues, etc. However, when life got better I was still depressed and anxious. Two years passed and I still couldn't figure out why I felt so bad mentally. Not to mention I was mildly nauseous most of the time and NEVER had a normal appetite. I would only know it was time to eat when I felt faint. Light-headedness, stomach cramps and lethargy were also side-effects that I experienced almost daily. The worst part was that I didn't know if the nausea was caused by my stomach issues or by the omeprazole. It was obviously the omeprazole. About 2 months ago I switched to Prevacid which caused much less nausea but many of the other side effects were still there although a little less. I weened myself off completely (which I would recommend to anyone) and I actually feel like my old self again mentally and physically. I didn't realize how low my energy was until this last week that I've been off those meds. I'm actually HAPPY again, I WANT TO EAT something, I have ENERGY, and no light-headedness or stomach pain at all. It saddens me to think that I spent over the last 2 years feeling this way needlessly and thinking that I was crazy. There ARE other alternatives to acid reflux, GERD, etc out there that are much safer and more tolerable. If any of you are experiencing some of the symptoms that I or others have described, explore other options before you just "get used to" feeling like crap.

I am 23 and never used to experience heartburn until I had my gallbladder removed last June. So at my Dad's recommendation, I bought the generic brand of Prilosec which was Omeprazole from Target. I was using it as the pamphlet instructed, (1) 20MG tablet for (14) days. Today is my 10th day and the only side effect that I believe I am experiencing is vivid nightmares. I have been taking birth control pills and a multivitamin for a long time now and because I just started with the Omeprazole, that is the only explanation I can come up with. That is how I found this site because I was trying to see if it was a common side effect. I have only experienced the nightmares for the past three nights however, I dream several different scenarios within a night. The last time I experienced consecutive nightmares was about 2-3 years ago when I was taking Lexapro for anxiety in which I had them for six months straight! As for the frequent heartburn -- it has disappeared but now I am afraid of continuing it in the future because of the massive list of complaints from other users. Just when I thought my problem was solved...you're damned if you do and damned if you don't!

J. T.

I started to take OMEP on 17th (Tuesday) and by Friday started to have some chest pains (I thought I was getting a cold) Saturday and Sunday, slept most of the day and night by Monday my chest pains start to get worst. Tuesday as I surf the web on the symptoms it matched Anxiety and panic attic. Today was the worst, my employees were ready to take me to hospital because they thought I was having a heart attack but it only last about 10 to 15 minutes where feels like somebody is stepping on my chest and squeezing my heart. I am stopping with the med today to see how it feels next couple of days but I don't think it was a coincidence.

I have always been extremely sensitive to medicine and if there's a side effect, I'll surely have it. I questioned my doc at length about possible side effects of Omeprazole and was told they are very minor, very uncommon and include nausea, diarrhea, and dizziness. Within an hour of the first dose, I became flushed, itchy, and felt heaviness in my chest. I have suffered from vertigo in the past and had a spell yesterday. I suspected the drug because I take nothing else currently. Yesterday I took the second dose and all day had an uncomfortable feeling of anxiety, itchiness, heaviness in chest, had difficulty sleeping, felt heart palpitations, and sporadic hot flashes, sweating. I am afraid to take the third dose; particularly after reading how long it can take for this stuff to clear your system. I'm a fan of holistic medicine and natural therapies and will call my doctor first thing Monday to discuss alternatives to chemistry-altering, manufactured drugs!

Stay away from this !!!!!!. I took this for 2.5 months and during the middle of it I started to feel nausea and fatigue. I than started to get light headed during the day for no reason. I started to relate the pills to my symptoms and stopped. I have been off for 2 months now and I still experience light hotheadedness. It is now just starting to get better. Hopefully this will go totally away over time?
I also believe this brought on Anxiety as well?
Anyone else experience this?

A.

Hello All,
Thank God I have read this site, I thought I was going crazy!
I have the tightness of the chest and waking up in the middle of the night thin king my heart is going to jump through my chest. My heartburn and sickness even feels worse. I am going to stop taking immediately and cancel my appointment at the nut house.
Many Thanks to you all.

Well I too am having "weird" symptoms. It may be due to Omeprazole but not sure at this point. I switched from Prilosec OTC to Omeprazole which I thought to be the exact same thing. A couple months after the switch I am having chest tightness. Not really pain but just a weird feeling in my chest that almost feels like anxiety or stress and kind of a general weird feeling. Also kind of feels like a chest cold without the mucus that goes along with it. Went to the doc and had a EKG which was normal. I'm 30 years old and don't have any family history of heart issues.

I'm going to stop taking it for a few days to see if the symptoms get better. I'll post back in a week or so.

I have had most of the side effects you are all talking about.

I was taking it for 2 weeks off one week again one week off one week than on again.

I didn't realize my headaches were form the medicine so kept taking it.

Yesterday I had an exteme reaction, huge panic and anxiety chest pain back pain thought I was going crazy.

I am so happy I found this site.

I will never take it again, Today I did not take it but am still feeling horrible, anxiety, heart pulps, just feeling"out of it"

This is just not right, there were none of these side effects listed on the box.

I wonder how long it will take to feel OK again.

I've been taking Prilosec since late 2003 and it hasn't been until now that I've linked all the strange symptoms I've been having to taking Prilosec. I've been having anxiety, heart pulps, strange, stabbing headaches that come and go in a flash, occasional sensitivity to light, pain behind the eye, dizziness, fogginess, and fatigue. I've been to the doctor several times over the past few years hoping to find a cause. After many blood tests, x-rays, heart tests, etc, he couldn't find anything and just said anxiety and that I should try yoga. It surprises me that he wouldn't even suggest that I try coming off the Prilosec to see if that could do it since it appears that many people experience these strange symptoms.

I've stopped taking Prilosec today and I'm hopeful that all of this will clear up and I can get back to normal.

I was given Prilosec after an upper endoscopy confirmed GERD. Mostly my symptoms were a feeling like a swallowed a childes building block and it was stuck in my chest, along with heart burn. Prilosec seemed to help, but after about 2 months on it, I began to experience severe dizziness, anxiety, depression, heart palpitations, tingling hands and feet, occasional numbness to right side of body and was diagnosed with anemia. The dizziness was the worst for me. It got so bad, I thought I had agoraphobia, because the dizziness seemed to get worse when I went into stores or public places with bright or fluorescent lights. I thought I was losing my mind and my life. Christmas is coming so I had to force myself to try and shop. Ironically, because of all the hustle and bustle, I forgot to take the Prilosec that day and I was able to shop with very little dizziness! Before this, I would have to leave stores because the dizziness got so bad. My husband thought I went back on it the following day and said this would be the test to see if the Prilosec was the culprit. But, I hadn't taken it for the 2nd day and I was able to shop for almost 6 hours and felt like myself again! I know Prilosec was the cause of my feeling like I was going to die for almost a year now! I was about to contact a psychiatrist, it was getting so bad. Unfortunately, after the 3rd day, the heartburn got so bad, I had to take the Prilosec again and I feel awful again. Helped the heartburn, but all the horrible side-effects are back. After the holidays, I'm calling my doctor to see if she can put me on something else.

I've been on Prilosec for 3 yrs, and most recently put on Zegerid, which is omeprazole/sodium bicarbonate. I have had on both the occasional chest pain, anxiety, joint pains, and weakness/fatigue, and mild depression/with aggitation, and confusion. I am on 40 mg a day. These side effects are real, no doubt about it.

I have always taken Prilosec but when I asked the dr for a new prescription , I was given the generic drug. I didnt take notice as I never have any side effect from any drug. Shortly after taking it, I started experiencing irregular heartbeats and pounding of my heart. I ended up in the emergency room but my ekg's , x'rays were fine. I ended up getting so anxious and nervous , the dr gave me valiem for my anxiety. I also experienced insomnia, hot flashes. Didnt know what was going on until three weeks later, I started reading on side effect of this drug and found out that a lot of people were experiencing the same symptoms I was. I immediately quit taking the drug and within a few days my symptoms started going away. I still get an occasion jerking on my stomach but its a lot better than it was when I was on the drug and didnt even know this was causing it.