Hi everyone, I was interested to hear people's experiences with the
serotonin syndrome. It is potentially fatal. It takes different forms
and can differ in the degree of severity. Sometimes it has psychotic
features, other times it doesn't. This is a...
View more
Hi everyone, I was interested to hear people's experiences with the
serotonin syndrome. It is potentially fatal. It takes different forms
and can differ in the degree of severity. Sometimes it has psychotic
features, other times it doesn't. This is apparently rare. But I think
it is more accurate to say that it is rarely diagnosed. For me, I've had
two episodes of the serotonin syndrome in three months. For me, it had
psychotic features (e.g. auditory hallucinations). It is incredibly
disempowering to have this occur. When you know you are experiencing the
serotonin syndrome, especially when there are psychotic features. This
is because your claims are discounted by nurses and psychiatrists, at
least by those that don't know you well, as claims of a psychotic person
lacking insight. Even for me, a person with a PhD in economics, with
access to peer-reviewed journal articles pay-walled to most other
people, I struggled to be taken seriously by those who didn't really
know me. I finally had to take things into my own hands to improve my
situation. I can only imagine how daunting and frustrating this would be
for others. I'm not alone in my experience. I know of at least one
person in the US that has written about this, although not a medical
doctor herself, she is medically trained in neuroscience as a
researcher. She identified this in her mother. However, as was my
experience too, her claims were not believed. Unfortunately for her, her
mother passed away as a result. My recent experiences and my heightened
risk of further experiences means that this is something I'm very
passionate about making sure others don't also have to suffer through.
My psychiatrist apologised, still, it would have been good to avoid this
entirely. I'm keen to hear others' experiences, as I said I think this
is actually quite common. People have become more informed over time in
terms of formal education, access to the Internet, access to
peer-reviewed research. They may very well know that they have
experienced the serotonin syndrome, although it was left not diagnosed.
I really think that there needs to be a risk assessment tool developed
for people to better identify cases of the serotonin syndrome and to
ultimately improve outcomes. I still have some lingering and possibly
permanent damage from my experiences. An instrument that is quick to
implement like the K10 or the DASS21 would be good to see developed and
used. Please share your experiences and thoughts.
First time Seeing a psychiatrist
