ativan to treat palpitaions???

[aylish28]

I am under alot of stress due to my acting up teenagers and I already have anxiety disorder and get many ectopics...
I am finding that at night my heart is just pounding not really fast just so forceful it is very uncomfortable and my chest gets tight,the only thing that helps me get any sleep is to take a 1mg ativan--i know this is addictive and dont want to become addicted,i am weaning off zoloft  down to 25 mg every 4 days after many years on a daily ssri,,,i take fish oil and garlic capsules  but no other meds...any ideas or feedback regarding ativan to treat palps???thank you---

[aylish28]

thank you you guys are wonderfully supportive and full of info!!!!

[lasseire]

I don't think the Ativan will help the PVCs directly, but you need to get in a space where you aren't so anxious that your body is dumping so much adrenaline.  That can definitley trigger more PVCs.  I also suffer from an anxiety disorder and lots of PVCs and I can totally tell when the PVCs take off for awhile, it's usually because I have more anxiety or stress.  There isn't a direct line between the 2 - like oh do some deep breathing & calm down & the PVCs magically go away.  I WISH!  But it builds as the anxiety does & lessens after a *while* of not having so much anxiety.

I'm taking Luvox, which is an SSRI and a very tiny dose of Klonipin (.25 mg) at night so I can fall asleep.  The Klonipin is another benzo and I know it will be hard to wean off of, but right now, I need to sleep.  So the benefit outweighs the future w/drawal issues FOR ME at this time.  My EP doc did say the Luvox (and all SSRIs) can contribute to increasing PVCs but again, FOR ME, at this time, I need it to function & deal with the PVCs! Catch 22, I guess.

You need to decide what is the most helpful for you in dealing with both issues; the PVCs and the anxiety.  I don't think all benzos are evil, but again, everyone is different.  Xanax was like the devil for me but the Klonipin is working fairly well and I am very congnizant of using the least amount & only at night.

The other thing that *really* helps me is exercise.  I know it's not easy to find time to do and it's not "fun", but with anxiety, the exercise releases a lot of that "pent up energy" feeling. And I don't have any PVCs while I'm working out, which is another +. : )

Hang in there!

[yarrow]

Son of a gun!  You, too?  I was shocked by the difference, and fish oil was the only recent change in my life.  When I stopped taking it, the PVCs dropped back to the usual level.

[itdood]

p.s., I'm like yarrow, my PVCs worsened (i'm talking doubled if not more) on fish oil.

[itdood]

I took xanax for sleep problems once, it's similar to ativan.  After two weeks the problem resolved itself.  Coming off the xanax wasn't easy, took about a week to normalize off that.  I was better off dealing with the original issue, trying to make it better with X only prolonged it and created a new set of problems for me.  Looking back it wasn't that bad, I'm not the addictive type and got through it.  When I tried to stop it cold after just two weeks use I would get a high level of anxiety at bedtime and I felt these tremors in my extremities.  I figured it was only two weeks!  dang.  

What made you want to get off the zoloft?  If it aint broke, don't fix it.  

[BobRBob]

Based on my experience with SSRIs and benzodiazapines, I would steer clear of both of them, expecially the Ativan. All benzos are a disaster waiting to happen. They are extremely addictive and eventually stop working as your body develops tolerance, leading to a vicious circle of updosing. Withdrawal can be a long and painful experience. Visit PaxilProgress.com and Benzo.withdrawal.com for a peek into this nightmare world.

CBT therapy and other methods for managing anxiety disorders have better long term outcomes. Google anxiety disorder for some ideas.
Good luck.

[yarrow]

"perhaps i jumped the gun on the ssri quiting??? "

Ya think?

Seriously, if your young daughter is having anxiety and ectopic beats, the chances are that you two are mostly seeing your genetics at work.  The pvcs are probably not directly related to the SSRIs, though if you think you were having fewer ectopics on celexa, you could try going back to that one.  My guess is that you're just in a phase now when those little irritable heart cells are firing a lot.  For sure, the adrenaline you are flooded with when you're anxious will make them worse, and the SSRIs really do tend to quiet all that down.  

btw,I forgot to mention that my own pvcs got dramatically worse on fish oil, which my doc had also suggested I take.

[Tarantulagirl]

magnesium. highly absorbable magnesium. read up about it.

[aylish28]

i forgot to mention i am on the fish oil to help lower slightly elevated  cholesterol and help the ectopics at the request of my cardiologist-- not to treat my anxiety--i dont have depression just anxiety/panic disorder--i did read up on the fish oil-- will be careful to watch i had no idea--if things keep up i will go back on an ssri

[aylish28]

i will read up on fish oil---i was weaning of the zoloft cause right after i switched from celexa to that my ectopics got worse than ever so i read up on ssri  and they can all cause heart palps so decided maybe if i got off all them they would go away!!!literally 1 hour ago my 18 yr old daughter came home in hysterics as her first boyfreind of 3 years broke up with her-- she already had  depression ,anxiety and ectopics as well now she is hysterical and i am worried about suicide risk,,ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhperhaps i jumped the gun on the ssri quiting???

[CFS56]

Ativan helps me a lot.  I am going through a very stressful period right now and I have been very glad I have it around.  I am taking .5 mg twice a day.  You don't want to take it forever, but when you are having a hard time it really helps.

[yarrow]

Why, with teenagers, would you even be thinking of weaning yourself off Zoloft?  If there were ever a time in anyone's life when Zoloft is needed...

Zoloft helps most stressed-out people with sleep; it helps me personally not to hear or feel my odd heartbeats; and of course it doesn't have the 'addictive' potential of ativan.

My advice to you would be to lose the fish oil right now.  It's going to sound funny, but there is one solid study of the benefits of fish oil in which the researchers noted that there is a slight possibility--in a very few people--of fish oil causing agitation or even triggering mania.  Here's the article:

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/cme/display/article/10168/1171213

The warning about fish oil is in the paragraph titled "Safety Profile of Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids."  

And then there's this:

"There are rare reports of mania in patients with bipolar disorder or major depression. Restlessness and formication (the sensation of ants crawling on the skin) have also been reported."
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-fishoil.html

These are remote possibilities, but you have to ask yourself, "Do I need this?"