Hi Everyone,

I am 11 months post concussion. Many of my symptoms have resolved, but I am left with the same bad headaches, extreme fatigue, and anger.

My doctor recently prescribed me Celexa to deal with my anger and confrontationalness I have been unleashing on my loved ones.

I was curious if anyone else has taken Celexa for similiar reasons and the results if any?

I am a police officer so needless to say I need to resolve my anger before I can resume my work.

Copper

Hi Copper,
My head injury was in June 07 and I'm on a 'cocktail' of drugs to level out my emotions. Anger has never been an issue for me, but anxiety/fear/stress has. I'd guess that anger, anxiety, stress and/or fear would probably be treated in similar ways.

My neurologist put me on celexa (60 mg), and a very low dose of klonopin (.5 mg) to help with the issues I have. Prior to the head injury my anxiety levels were probably a little higher than most; but after the head injury the anxiety/stress/fear were off the chart until the meds started working.

I'm currently going through a VERY rough situation which would, prior to the head injury, have caused me a great deal of anxiety and fear. I can't say that the celexa and klonopin have completely taken away the anxiety, but I strongly believe that if I weren't on those drugs, I would not be able to handle it.

I'm also on a few couple other drugs which may or may not also contribute to leveling me off (seroquel to help me sleep and cut down on the sleepwalking/talking etc. and ropinirole for uncontrollable jerking). Yeah, my head injury really did a number on me.


Frankly, I'm not sure the celexa alone would have been enough to control the emotional side of my head injury symptoms. I think the combination of celexa and klonopin is what is keeping me calm.

I'm sure your doc warned you that it'll take a few weeks before you'll notice any changes, and it really does take care of things gradually. It's like one day you'll be going about your day and will think to yourself, "hmmmm- it's been a while since I've become angry- when did that happen?"

I hope sincerely this works for you. I really despised/despise not being in control of my emotions so am glad that I have a neurologist that knows what she's doing.

Good luck to you!

Thank you for the reply.

I have only been on the Celexa for a week or so. So far I just feel a little "off" on it.....kind of quiet.

hi copper


why do we get angry and short with people ?

frustration that we cant function

frustration with the situation

frustration we are not the bread winner

frustration with the pain

frustration because we are not Shaw of our self

frustration at how we got the ABI

frustration at the frustration

frustration at how long it is taking to heal

frustration at the anger

is there a drug for frustration ,I think not only therapy

I agree with Vini, that there are no magic pills that could wipe away anger..., however, if you really believe in this drug it will probably work.

Copper,

Anger, rage, the inner beast that never fully sleeps...there is the very worst part of the sum of my injuries. The limbic system in the brain controls these emotions, and I'm beginning to believe that's the part of the brain slowest to adjust to PCS/TBI.

It's been about nineteen years since I went through a long period of medication trials to stabilise mood. One of the many meds I tried was Prozac, the first generation of SSRI's. I went from depressed/enraged and partially sleepless to thoroughly depressed and totally sleepless in seven days. But the rage was gone. I was also ready to die and I'm glad I was able to see that and check back in with my Dr.. All that on a beginners dose.

Celexa is a second generation SSRI and, while much improved over its predecessors, is still a powerful drug. Many head-injured persons do fine on this class of med. Then there are critters like me whose chemistry is a bit more touchy.

The best Dr. ever to work with me and the only Dr. to this day who truly understood head injury in child and adult populations stated it best whenever she encountered a person nonresponsive or with idosynchratic reactions to the common meds used: "Try one tenth of the dose. I don't know exactly why it works this way, but try it".

Keep a close eye on it in these early days. If you have any doubts, check in with your Dr. If you ever need to get off this med, you may need to wean off it to prevent serotonin syndrome.

If you are open to dietary supplements (and I don't babble about these lightly) may I suggest a healthy dose of green tea extract daily, or L-theanine, the most active ingredient of green tea. As always, check with your Dr. and/or pharmacist but I believe it to be one of the most safe supplements in existence. I've given it a two-month trial with pleasant results and nothing negative to report. My wife says I'm slightly easier to live with. Hey-ho.

hi copper

FB is right take care with theses meds my first gp put me on prozac I am depressed but it is situational as apposed to clinical in the first couple of days I went berserk over a phone call and started smashing the house up it took five of you guys to take me away, I kept taking it for six months ,and found that I just dident care about any thing so dident get wound up but felt I was sinking so changed my doc and came off them had real low time but started taking omega 3 twice a day also multi vits I will try the green tea ( thanks FB ) I manage the rage as best I can and deflect it from my loved ones , but its not to say it won,t work well for you but, watch out for massive mood swings that you may not be able to control ,in your work you probably came across out of control people, how many were having idosynchratic reactions

kind regards vini

thanks for the replies fb AND VINI.

I am currently taking a multivitamin and omega 3's as well. I am supposed to start epival for my migraines in a few weeks also. I tried Topomax and it was a mightmare. Any of you guys try epival?

I just take standard pain meds but tend to have a lay down because if you think about it , is it when you push your self that the head ache comes on, I also have a suspected CSF leak I am having tests at kings, did you have any skull fractures I did and a nasal CSF leak ,I don,t know if there is meds we can take for this, trying to do to much to early dose more harm, than good meds only mask the symptoms

kind regards vini

Epival -- also known as Depakote... is one med for migraines i haven't tried -yet
I hope it helps you. there's much other info about it--pro/cons--
this site came up when google--u may find better...


http://www.prozactruth.com/divalproex.htm

www.healthcentral.com/migraine/find-drug.html--lots of info about migraine
lists Depakote and other 'commonly' used drugs and more info about migraines


there are over 100 meds/combo that can be used for migraine.-- will try to find List, and more info and Post
along w/ some other things (like supplements, vitamins, etc) that may help --migraines & other PCS sx--
i
hope others will keep sharing these too..

Good Luck