Procrastination isn't only bad for the anxious teenager scrambling to finish his AP english paper the night before it's due. As a medical assistant, having triaged several telephone calls from patients, I can't count the number of calls we've gotten from patients saying they've been out of their medication for a few days and need to refill them.
These tidbits of information below opened my eyes to the problems procrastination can have in regards to health and keeping current with your prescribed medication schedule:
Two days after undergoing a transurethral resection surgery, Peter Althouse, developed nausea and intermittent vomiting, followed by chills, dizziness, and tremors. He was anxious and irritable. After a series of testing to find the cause of these symptoms, they came back normal. With further questioning, the doctors found that he'd been prescribed paroxetine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), an anti-depressant, for major depressive disorder. He was told to take nothing by mouth the day of his surgery, so he refrained from taking his medications. This led to SSRI dicontinuation syndrome, which typically occurs 24-72 hours after the patient stops taking an SSRI. This is not life-threatening, however, it can cause distressing physical and emotional symptoms that can be mistaken for complications of an illness, procedure, or other medication. Signs and symptoms appear ABRUPTLY and last for 1 to 2 weeks if not identified and treated. The most common signs and symptoms fall into four categories:
*gastrointestinal- including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and indigestion
*neurologic- such as light-headedness, dizziness, vertigo, loss of balance, HEADACHE, tremors, involuntary muscle twitching, numbness, and electric-shock sensations
*somatic-including chills, rhinorrhea (runny nose), fatigue, lethargy that may mimic the flu,
*psychological-such as anxiety, irritability, agitation, depressed or labile mood, hypomania, insomnia, and vivid dreams or nightmares.
The severity of the signs and symptoms is dependent upon the duration of the patient taking the SSRI medication, the dosage, and the specific drug's half-life. For example, the patient that has only been taking the medicaiton for 6 weeks is less likely to develop signs and symptoms of SSRI discontinuation syndrome than patients whose brains have adapted over time to the medication. Medication half-life also effects the severity of serotonin reuptake discontinuation syndrome. The SSRI's with short half-lives, such as paroxetine, are more commonly prescribed because they typically cause less frequent and less severe adverse reactions.
Make sure you call your medication refills in ahead of time. The best time allotment is to call 3-4 days ahead of time. This gives some wiggling room for clinics and pharmacies that are extra busy and slow to get your refills called in. Don't wait for the last minute!
If you want to discontinue your SSRI (antidepressant), make sure you taper yourself off slowly!!!
The long and short of it is DON'T PROCRASTINATE!!!
(This post was developed around the article "The dark side of SSRIs" from the Nursing2009 Peer-Reviewed Journal of Clinical Excellence)
