Posted by Jenny on April 13, 2000, at 9:31:02
I am on Serzone and doing reasonably well with it. I got bronchitis. The doctor (regular doctor, doesn't know me, I told him I'm on Serzone) put me on Ceftin (antibiotic) and Claritin-D (decongestant). I spent the next week unable to sleep and when I did a little I had nightmarish dreams. In the daytime I grew very sad, very irritable and had a lot of very negative, distorted thoughts. I felt like I was falling fast into a very deep agitated, paranoid sort of depression. I got that feeling of being in this deep, dark place I'd never get out of. I didn't know if it was fatigue from the bronchitis (I foolishly kept going to work through this) or the medications, or the medications interacting with my Serzone. I stopped the claritin-D and though I remained fatigued, my sleep and mood eased improved. I have now finished the antiobiotic, though the bronchitis is lingering and I still wheeze. My question is does Claritin-D and decongestants in general bring on depression in people prone to it? I'm reading a book called "A Mood Apart" by Peter Whybrow about mood disorders and a doctor friend of his in there talks about managing his own bipolar disorder (I'm not bipolar) and he says he knows to avoid triggers by making sure he sleeps enough and avoiding cold medications. So is there a known link here between cold medicines/decongestants/antihistamines and triggering depression? Thanks for any responses.
poster:Jenny
thread:29829
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000411/msgs/29829.html