Drug Interactions?

[Papa-Hen]

Folks,

This is Henry returning after more than a month since my last post.

In summary, I'm 47 and chronic fatigue has been with me for ages. I again quit wheat products in November and wound up losing about 50 lb since. At the beginning of June, I had just finished reading Dangerous Grains and eliminated the rest of the gluten. I saw my PCP, and when I asked if I should get tested for gluten sensitivity, he said no due to the fact that I had lost weight so easily (i.e. again--I had done this before & quit believing that bread could be such a culprit as compared to other carbs), I had dh, and my recent bloodwork showed a great reduction in inflammation. I immediately looked up "inflammatory diseases" & felt wonderfully optimistic that I was going to feel great any day.

The week after Memorial Day, I started with the insomnia. By the end of the week I told coworkers I was "in overload". The next week, the anxiety & abdominal pain kicked in & I began taking sick days. They called in an Rx for Ativan that helped some. The next Thursday/Friday I was really a mess with the anxiety and insomnia, plus I was so tired but with this crazy energy in the middle of the night to the point that I was doing somersaults on my bed & pushups to blow the energy.

I bounced back some and even felt well the following Monday, but by the end the week, I was a mess to the point that I saw the nurse practitioner (unfortunately, my beloved PCP was out during all this) who sent me to the psyciatric crisis center, i.e. "Do not pass "Go", do not collect $200", and I wound up as an in-patient for a week, then 2 weeks as a outpatient for a total of 3 weeks away from work. During this time I hit the "doom & dispair", which I wouldn't wish upon anyone. I'm now 3 weeks back at work, I'm taking Zoloft, & I continue to improve--at one point last week teasing with a coworker that I might eventually feel so good consistently that it will be tough for the rest to put up with me! (I'm still fluctuating, so at another time, he might have gotten a less optimisitc report.)

Granted, life had been busy with sufficient challenges that it might all have been an anxiety attack due to the situations, but the doctors mentioned the liklihood of sleep deprivation due to sleep apnea and a Bi-Pap that I had quit using because it didn't seem to help & because it was sufficiently uncomfortable, and as I had been taking Ritalin for ADHD. (It was so nice that I finally became a reader in my 30s when I started the Ritalin.)

So, while the doctors can't say exactly what happened, my thinking is that as I was cleaning my body of the gluten, the Ritalin became more assimilated to the point that it passed the point of calming and began acting as a stimulant, leading to the insomnia, sleep deprivation, and the psychiatric crisis.

Any thoughts?

Any other notions of drug interactions?

Please keep me in your prayers & best wishes for continuing improvement as I am not quite "there", yet.

Best regards,

- Henry

[jerseyangel]

Hi Henry

I don't know anything about the drugs you were on, but I do want to offer my best wishes and prayers for you as you continue on your journey to health.

[celiacgirls]

So you were gluten free when you started having excess energy? Were you newly gluten free? Are you still taking the Ritalin?

I think you could be right that your body is reacting differently to the Ritalin since you are gluten free. Maybe you only needed the Ritalin because of the gluten.

I was taking Lexapro when I went gluten-free and within 2 or 3 days, I felt "giddy". I knew Lexapro could make you manic so I quit taking it and the problem went away.

I also thought I had ADD and considered getting something for that but that has gone away since I've been gluten-free. So based only on my personal experience, I would think you might not need the Ritalin any more or maybe not as much.

[flagbabyds]

The ridillin might be being absorbed differently cause your villi are regrowing and you can absorb more.

[eleep]

I would suggest maybe seeing what happens when you taper off the Ritalin. A doctor put me on that stuff when I first thought I might have ADD (the symptoms have all gone now that I'm gluten-free), and I have to say I think it's a really gnarly drug. It actually made me more irritable and stressed than I was even with untreated Celiac -- it also caused me to hyperfocus on entirely the wrong things sometimes. I switched to very tiny amounts of Adderall for a short while -- which was a much more effective and less-stressy drug for me, although I don't need anything at this point.

Also, going gluten-free seems to cause withdrawal in a lot of people -- and that was my experience with lots of stress and insomnia and stuff. Part of it had to do with the fact that it took a while to get all the gluten sources out of my life (took me two months to actually read "gluten" in my multivitamin's list of ingredients!), part of it had to do with my system adjusting. I also had a lot of other stress going on at the time, so it was hard just to snap into a new and brilliant eating and cooking routine.

eleep

[Papa-Hen]

So you were gluten free when you started having excess energy? Were you newly gluten free? Are you still taking the Ritalin?

I think you could be right that your body is reacting differently to the Ritalin since you are gluten free. Maybe you only needed the Ritalin because of the gluten.

I was taking Lexapro when I went gluten-free and within 2 or 3 days, I felt "giddy". I knew Lexapro could make you manic so I quit taking it and the problem went away.

I also thought I had ADD and considered getting something for that but that has gone away since I've been gluten-free. So based only on my personal experience, I would think you might not need the Ritalin any more or maybe not as much.

All,

Thanks for the info and your best wishes.

Yes, I had just eliminated the rest of the gluten from my diet when the crisis began to develop. I came off the Ritalin just before entering the in-patient program. I have just begun to take it again, and it does seem to be keeping awake later than usual. Previous to going gluten free, I would have said that it did not affect my sleep. So, I'll continue to monitor this.

And, yes, I hope to eventually find that going gluten free will eliminate the ADD.

- Henry

[elonwy]

Have you checked the ritalin itself for gluten? The pharmacy might know, or you may have to call the manufacturer directly. I had to do that with all my daily drugs.

I was put on ritalin in high school. ( teenager that doesn't want to pay attention in school - go figure)

It made me nuts and I'd stay up until 2am every night. I've also been put on several different anti-depressants over the years, and they all made me worse in different ways, and every single one of them affected my sleep patterns. Prozac made me so depressed I cried for 8 hours at work one day, without stoppping. Wellbutrin made me so manic I had to go to the hospital to be under observation until it left my system. The others weren't so drastic, but its certain I was better off without them, regardless.

Point being, everyone's reaction to these drugs is different. Now that you're gluten free, they may want to consider dropping your dose a little bit, because it is very likely you're asorbing more now that your diet has changed.

Everything you're describing is a possible side effect of ritalin. Ritalin is a stimulant, and if you're getting too much of it, you're going to react to it. Theres a reason kids sell their ritalin in school, and thats because if your body doesn't need it, its very similar to taking speed, just in little tiny doses.

Is all of this coming from your PCP or do you have a therapist as well? I would recommend getting help from more than just an MD in adjusting these doses.

Hope you feel better.

Elonwy