Hello everyone,
my name is Nicholas and I'm a 21 years old guy from Italy.
I suffered from chronic insomnia from the age of 15 and in mid-February 2017 was prescribed before bedtime the antidepressant mirtazapine at 15 mg and the antipsychotic olanzapine at 2,5 mg. I took them for 2 weeks without improvement. Therefore the psychiatrist increased mirtazapine at 30 mg and olanzapine at 10 mg. Now I believe that he thought I had bipolar disorder type 1 but I hadn’t any mental illnes.
I took olanzapine at 10 mg because I think was only a tranquilizer and because I trusted the doctor.
Olanzapine made me sleep for 13 hours but I was no longer myself. After 5 days I tried to split the tablet but it gave me a strange effect. So I continued for others 15 days at 10 mg because I really needed to sleep. Then in April 2017 I tapered olanzapine in 1 week because I could not live anymore like that. I took it for a total of 48 days.
After this I reduced mirtazapine to 15 mg and 1 week later I stop cold turkey. At that time I took the benzodiazepine brotizolam at 0,25 mg for 2 weeks to help me sleep.
The withdrawal symptoms were terrible for 4 months and I have not been the same anymore.
When I was on mirtazapine and olanzapine I had eyelids fasciculation like this in the picture 2 or 3 times per day. When I quitted olanzapine the eyelids fasciculation ceased.
2 weeks after withdrawal from olanzapine and 1 week from mirtazapine I started to have frequently intermittent muscle twitching in the left thigh and occasionaly pulsating muscles in other parts of the body. After less than a couple of months they have decreased in frequency and intensity but didn’t stop completely. During this period I was forced to take the antidepressant sertraline and the benzodiazepine diazepam because for the new psychiatrist I had obsessive compulsive disorder with an obsession for the damage of antipsychotics. I did not have anything like that and could taper and withdraw after 3 months in July 2017.
Now I think maybe that the muscles twitching have diminished because diazepam is also a muscle relaxant.
In August 2017 some days after withdrawal from sertraline and diazepam I started to have frequent fasciculations in the legs when I lie down and less frequently when I sit while I never felt them when I move. Few times a day I had pulsating muscles also in the arms and the trunc but never in the face. I never had muscle twitches in multiple parts of the body at the same time.
The muscle twitching was like that (search on Youtube Major thigh fasciculation - Muscle twitching) but less frequent.
In September the muscles twitching moved for 1 week in the lower abdominals.
In October 2017 for 2 weeks the muscles twitches suddenly stopped in the legs and continued in the rest of the body about 5 times per day.
When the muscles twitching returned they were milder and less frequent, 1 per minute in the legs when I lie down. Sometimes the fasciculations are so mild that when I looked at my calf I saw them without feel them. In the legs they have become more single rapid muscular contractions than pulsating muscles.
Soon after I started to have freequently pulsating muscle in my upper lip. The muscle twitch was very mild and lasted 2 weeks but after it I have frquently pulsating muscles also in my face, especially in my eyelids. Sometimes the muscles twitches in my eyelids are so mild that when I looked at me in the mirror I saw them without feel them.
Do you think it is a tardive dyskinesia caused by olanzapine despite I haven’t involuntary body movements?
Do you think it could be some other side effect caused by olanzapine or maybe mirtazapine? It’s 8 months that I’ve it.
I have been visited by several psychiatrists and neurologists and everyone said it was just stress.
Even if I do not have the symptoms of tardive dyskinesia I do not know what else it could be: I’m not stressed and I do not suffer from anxiety, I do not take stimulants, I can sleep, I have had blood tests and I haven’t electrolyte imbalances or hypoglycemia, I did electromyography and had normal results.
The thing that worries me most is that there is a very large amount of medical literature that associates tardive dyskinesia with cognitive impairment.
Do you think I have cognitive deficit with these mild symptoms?
If it were to be tardive dyskinesia do you think that the fact that for almost 2 weeks the muscles twitches had almost disappeared means that I am healing?
Thank you and greetings from Italy.
