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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Reaction to prochlorperazine (akathisia) - also discussion on gastroparesis

Altered Perception

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 13, 2010
Messages
414
I have never experienced a psychotic reaction before and I have no history of any mental illness. But yesterday in hospital the doctor gave me a high dose of intravenous antipsychotic named Stemetil (prochlorperazine) which is a dopamine (D2) receptor antagonist that belongs to the phenothiazine class of antipsychotic agents that are used for the antiemetic treatment of nausea and vertigo as I had been vomiting all day.

About 30 minutes later I developed a sudden impending sense of doom unlike anything I have ever had before, it was an overwhelming feeling of restlesness and agitation. I became so uncomfortable lying in the narrow hospital bed in that cold room with an iv drip in one arm and a blood pressure monitor in the other and a heart rate monitor attached to my chest. I just couldnt sit still or get comfortable no matter what I did, I was like a dog circling its bed just before laying down. I began to twicth and move around in bed trying to find some peace but it got worse and worse and worse, I began to eperience a mixture of Dystona and restless leg syndrome and then I screamed and then next I did the most out of character thing for me...I just ripped off all the cables out of my chest and arms, the alarm went off and the doctor came into see what was going on.

I tried to explain to him I had a very severe restless, uncomfortable, agitated feeling and I just had of get ut of there real quick and go home. Luckly he let me go but when I stood up I could barely walk, I felt drunk and detached from reality. I asked the dctor if he had put anything else in my iv drip besides prochlorperazine and sodium chloride but he said I was probably just feeling tired.

Driving home was a challange, I just could't stop moving in my car seat from all the twitching and severe restless body aches like when you get the flue. I found myself screaming in frustration all the way home and wondering if I would ever be normal again as I felt mentally and phyically unstable and weird and my eyes were flickering like crazy and effecting my vision. I've slept on it since and I feel normal again except for some twitching and restless legs but I am still confused how I got all messed up in the first place, can anyone explain if prochlorperazine can cause such a reaction? Thanks.
 
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Ive been taking antipstchotics for about a yeah but never have had that reaction.
ive never heard of the one he gave u.
but when ive taken seroquel befre expecially when i first tried it it made my vision go a but weird when it kicked but.
u may have had an allergic or at may be that type of AP

why on earth would they give u an AP?

dont worry about it now as long as they're not forcing u to continue taking it because most APs arnt to bad. i havnt had any concerns with them. think they are making me put on weight though. ive gained like 5kg over the last 12 months I think
 
That kind of reaction is called akathisia. Antipsychotics sometimes cause it and in worst cases it can last very long even after the medication is discontinued.
 
Thanks for the reply.

Anon54, they gave me prochlorperazine because its also used in the treatment of nausea, vomiting and vertigo. Because I was throwing up they gave it to me as an IV.

Polymath, thanks for your help, I looked up akathisia and the symptoms fit exactly with what I had. I am annoyed that I am still experiencing some of its symptoms even 12 hours later. Do you know any way I can reverse its effects or take anything that might help relieve it ? I am really hurting from all aches, spasms and movements in my body
 
It will probably go away soon, but if it doesn't you should talk to a doctor and they will probably give you beta-blockers for the symptoms. Benzos help too.
 
I had a similiar reaction to haloperidol (Haldol) when I was trying to find something to knock me out during opi wds. What a fucking mistake! haha. Felt my muscle's begin to tense up and become very stiff. I felt like I couldn't stop moving (major RLS) and I started to feel a sense of of derealization and panic. I had to load up on my diazepam to stop the twitching, stiff muscles and the rising anxiety. I'll never put that drug in my system again after that expirience. When insomnia is an issue I'm going to stick to sedative antihistamines or Seroquel (which has never caused me akathisia), but preferably benzos.
 
Anti-psychotics have cause these effects for me as well. Dysphoria and akathisia are quite common among some of the anti-psychotics, some aren't as bad. Taking them orally is less unpleasant than IV or IM IME.
 
Yeah, anxiety can be caused by anti-psychotics. Sometimes rapid heartbeat will send you going apeshit... Especially while you are trying to go to sleep.

I never used any anti-psychotic ever again after seroquel. It pretty evil to me that anyone besides complete and udder maniacs get put on major tranquilizers.
 
I just wanted to add that anti-psychotics are indeed particularly noxious, dangerous, and unpleasant drugs that in my opinion have very limited use in medicine. Some are worthless because there are better ones available for whatever needs to be treated. Long-term use of anti-psychotics is particularly dangerous and risky due to the possibility of life-long side effects. Like I said there are certain conditions that an anti-psychotic can help, but they are extremely overused in medicine today.
 
^ They do. But as others have said, they also have a range of unpleasant side effects. It is a matter of balancing the benefits with the risks. It always makes me nervous when I see people casually using handfuls of Seroquel to sleep, yet antipsychotics definitely do have their place and the newer "atypical" ones have fewer of the movement side effects that the older ones such as prochlorperazine and haloperidol do (although they have their own side effects..)

They definitely have their place, when used properly (prochlorperazine is often a good treatment for vomiting and vertigo, as well as being an antipsychotic) and not everyone gets akathisia (or acute dystonia, a more extreme reaction) but as you have found out AP, when you do get the side effects they are not much fun! As polymath said, they should subside but if not I would go and see your GP.
 
Thank you for all the great advice. Does anyone know of any anti nausea medication that is better tolerated and not also an antipsychotic drug?

What I need is two types of medication, one to stop the nausea and vomiting and the other to help speed up the emptying of my stomach. The whole reason why I am vomiting is because I have a Gastroparesis, a condition that reduces the ability of the stomach to empty its contents, so the food ends up going bad spoiling in my gut and causing vomiting. I have a damaged Autonomic Nervous System (Dysautonomia) so it also effects my digestive tract by impairing function and lately it has gotten worse.

The same Doctor who gave me Stemetil (prochlorperazine) aso prescribed me MAXOLON (Metoclopramide hydrochloride) which is used to encourage normal passage of food through the stomach and intestines but because I already had a bad reaction to prochlorperazine I am also reluctant to start on the Maxalon. Does anyone know if Metoclopramide is also likly to cause the same type of reaction? If so is there a safer alternative? Is Cannabis able to help with nausea and increase the gut to empty and allow things to move along?
 
^ Metoclopramide is far less likely than prochlorperazine to give you akathisia, although it does still have weak antipsychotic proerties. If I were you I would still try it, as all the prokinetic antiemetics I know also have weak antipsychotic properties.. domperidone is another one.. and just because you have had a bad experience with one doesn't necessarily mean you will have a bad one with another. I understand your reluctance though!

Procyclidine can help if you get bad symptoms again - I'd head to your ER where they can administer that.

Most other antiemetics work on the vomiting centre in the brain rather than on speeding up gastric motility...
 
never had the twitchy side effect you described, though I was on seroquel for two years at a top dose of 800mg and I'll tell you it was hell. At that dose it hit me like a truck and, though I'd pass out in a few minutes, I suffered really nasty and acute panic during that time.

I'm guessing the doses of the medicine you were given are lower when used for nausea than acute psychosis. I'm surprised though that the doc didn't warn you that it could have that kind of effect. Most psychoactive drug side effects are not nearly as bad when you expect them. Otherwise you think something is legitimately wrong and it's not just a pill in your system, meh, irresponsible doctor if you ask me.
 
I'm sorry, from my experience, metoclopramide was the devil when it came to dysphoria and akithisia, esp. when given IV.
 
^ everyone is different. there is less chance with metoclopramide but the chance is still there. i've had both and been fine - but that's anecdotal, as is people's bad experiences. the risk is there - statistically it's low, but it is there...
 
I wouldn't imagine being under high influence of an anti-psychotic could, but I do know that during the same time period that I was taking Seroquel I did in fact have an INSANE psychotic reaction that basically made people (understandably) label me the crazy kid of the neighborhood.

Antipsychotics are in my opinion one of the worst class of substances in existence, let alone that BIG Pharma has come up with; I mean seriously, the shit is so fucking stifling and really only aught to be used under an extreme emergency--not for daily use. I could honestly see people going on murdering rampages spurred by the deeply depressive feeling of taking an anti-psychotic regularly.
 
Thanks everyone for all the helpful information. The first time I began to feel the weird effects of the prochlorperazine I didn't know what to make of it, I kept telling myself it was only stemetil used for nauseau and it could not have possibly been responsible for the way I was feeling, i tried to blame it on lack of sleep and food but then i relaized i've been deprived of those things countless times before and still not felt like that.

I began to question if the doctor had put anything else in my drip but the worse i got the more i started to realise it was definetly one of the ingredients in the drip. Now you guys have confirmed my concerns as being the anti-psychotics and I thank you all for that. I seem to have fully recovered from the effects now and its one thing I will never allow in my system again.
 
Hey buddy - sorry to hear about the crazy reaction.
That really sucks.

The Stemetil is a D2 antagonist - or a dopamine blocker.
The Maxolon is likely to produce some negative effects as well because it is also a D2 antagonist.
But it is also a 5ht3 antagonist, which is the serotonin receptor directly responsible for nausea.

The Maxolon is very unlikely to produce such a severe reaction - because oral administration SLOOOWS down the metabolism of the drug. Any injected drug will have a much more pronounced effect. So it is possible that a more controlled intake of stemetil would not have caused such a freakout. But considering your history, I suspect it would have been quite unpleasant no matter what.

Just to let you know, I have experienced what I would consider mild 'gastroparesis' throughout the last year.
Serotonin controls the contraction of smooth muscle around the intestines - this is its primary function.
And the hypothalamus, which is hyper-innervated during recovery from toxic MDMA exposure, is the control center for the release of digestive enzymes.
It is also the control center for the entire endocrine and adrenal system.

The relationship between the hypothalamus and serotonin is what provides emotion to thought.

As unpleasant as your reactions to drugs are, I consider them a sign of a very long-term recovery process.
Although it might be very uncomfortable or frightening to experience, I encourage you to embrace such experiences as they may have the potential to restore some level of function.
Anxiety, after all, is a prominent feature of recovery among most MDMA users.

The ongoing fevers that you experience across a variety of drugs is evidence enough.
Altered thermal-regulation has been documented in former MDMA users.
I have experienced quite a few mild fevers in the past few months.
They feel a bit like catching a virus...

But I consider them a good sign.
Strange that they did not occur more during the early part of my recovery.
It didn't set in until later on, except for the first few nights.
Maybe there is hope for you yet.
 
I had another episode of Gastroperesis (delayed gastric emptying of food) again today. This is going to sound weird but I think I found the reason why its occuring....Grapefruitjuice.

That was the exact trigger last time but I didn't know until I repeated the mistake to be certain.

How is this even possible? So I took the Grapefruit Juice and then took my Oxycodone, then waited the usual 40 minutes for it to kick in...nothing, 1 hour later still nothing, waited 2 hours...nothing 8( then 4 hours later...BOOM! massive Oxycodone reaction. This is exactly what happened a few days ago when I developed Gastroperesis after taking Grapefuitjuice and found my oyycodone delayed by 3 hours.

Grapefruitjuice really does some weird things to me, one time it caused me to develop bradycardia from oxycodone so whenver I took the GFJ and Oxy together it caused my heart rate to fall into the low 40 bpms, that type of reaction occured everytime for about a month and then eventually resolved itself. Another time I took GFJ it made the Oxycodone last for 8 hours instead of wearing off in 3 hours and this went on for about 3 weeks everytime i took them together. One other time it had no effect at all on the oxycodone not even potentiation...and now this week its causing a delayed effect in my digestion (gastropereisis) and making food and medication sit in my stomach for hours and causing it to spoil, ferment and make me vomit and this phase will probably last for a few weeks before it resolves as well just like all the previous unexplained Grapefruit mysteries. Everytime I take grapefruitjuice with oxycodone its like rolling the dice, i dont know what the hell its going to come up with next. Can anyone explain why?
 
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