Nexium Side Effects - It's Messing With My Head

Vanessa I know just what you mean about the cough, etc.  For a whole year my doctor treated me for asthma which we finally discovered was a result of the reflux.  That's why she put me on the Nexium.  But then I started having the anxiety, muscle pains/aches, fatigue from that so I switched myself to the Prilosec 20mg and I take that twice a day (once in the morning and once just before supper).  So far that seems to be better than the Nexium but if I miss just one pill I get the hearburn and feathery throat feeling and cough.  I talked to my doctor about licorice but she did mention the increased blood pressure and several other side effects, so I decided not to try that at this time.  I also read the drinking diluted apple cider vinegar helps reflux/heartburn but the side effect of that is it can rot your teeth if you're not careful.  It's very discouraging when you feel miserable and meds and herbs make you have other side effects too.  My doctor said she might send me for some testing where they insert a tube through your nose into your stomach and you keep it in for 24-48 hours and they measure your acidity but that doesn't sound like a Wow I Gotta Have That Fun Test kind of thing to me so I told her I'd prefer to hold on that right now.  Keep in touch everyone. I'm glad I'm not alone in these problems.

Tess

Hi: I have been on Nexium for about a week now, and while it's working very well on my GERD, I think it's messing with my head too.  I'm definitely having trouble focusing and last night I had the most unsettling dreams.  I haven't had nightmares for years, but this one was really weird.  Any similar experiences out there?

I was diagnosed with gastritis/gerd/two duodenal ulcers/ibs earlier this year. I had been treating my body poorly for 10-12 years, and found myself blacked out on the bathroom floor with severe abdominal pains, and the sudden inability to process anything even resembling food. After spending the night in the ER pumped full of morphine (thank god for a private room and the cartoon network), I was given instructions to follow up with a GI, where I was prescribed nexium. It has worked pretty well for a while, though I have had 4 subsequent episodes where I blacked out and ended up in the ER. After the last ER trip, about a week and a half ago, I was given 7 days worth of protonix, which seemed to work wonders. Having run out of the protonix, I am back on the nexium, and well, its not working, at all. I just made a 3am run to the local drug store to pick up some mylanta. I agree that the nexium does seem to have some sort of depressive psychological effects, and at one point was even prescribed a tricyclic antidepressant (desipramine) by the GI guy (who I dont care much for). When I asked him why the antidepressant, the only answer I was given was "its just something we give people in your condition, I dont know why it works". After reading this thread, I am thinking this is something that doctors are aware of, and are keeping the true reasoning behind it from their patients. It sounds a bit paranoid I know, but sometimes things just dont add up.

I am going to make an appointment with my GP, and request that I be put on the protonix for a while, but I really dont think these drugs are treating the cause, just the symptoms. I'm tired of feeling like crap all the time, I'm tired of having to pass up social engagements because of it, I'm tired of the doctors processing me like a head of cattle instead of treating me like an ailing human being.

On a related note, has anyone noticed a huge increase in metabolism since starting any of these medications? I am eating 6-8 mid-sized meals per day, and still needing more at some times. My weight has stayed pretty much the same (+/- 5lbs or so) through the whole ordeal. Not that I mind all the time I get to spend reading now, but I dont like being chained to a toilet 90% of the time. I'm too young for this crap (29).

Welcome to HealingWell, nihil! :)

Mark is right - perhaps trying a 2nd opinion would help!

Best Wishes, Teri :)

Nihil,
I agree with your that acid reducing drugs treat the symptoms, not the root cause of the disease. If you neutralize your stomach acid, you will not digest food as well. That could be why you feel hunger and the need to eat more. Maybe others on this site have had some experience with this. I wish you the best in finding alternatives to these meds. I was on them for years and don't miss them.

Dr Norm

1 thing I forgot ...

it takes usually 5 days to achieve maximal bioavailability of this class of drugs. Any side-effect type symptoms sometimes can dramatically reduce once a steady state is achieved.

Hey SK,

Congrats to you for looking into H. Pylori! I have many patients who simply don't have any insight into their own disease state.

That said ... yes ... you're absolutely right (in regards to not testing for H. Pylori). Many of my colleagues believe it hinders or helps (depending on whom you talk to). The normal course of treatment (depending on your insurance) is an Amoxil-based anti-biotic (usually TriMox) and a PCN-based anti-biotic (usually BiaxinXL) + PPI therapy. The problem also arises that many patients are treated with the therapy and they are still symptomatic (sometimes even exacerbating their current symptoms). Prevacid makes the PrevPak which is easy to use (but very expensive) and the treatment is roughly 80% effective (depending on the individual & exposure to previous anti-biotic treatments/resistance). I believe that Nexium & AcipHex also have indications for H. Pylori eradication (much cheaper for cash paying patients and usually only 10 days of therapy needed). One other contentious point is the fact of growing anti-biotic resistance to this standardized therapy. The PrevPak works for the majority of people, but unfortunately I've found myself treating patients with 3 or 4 different rounds of treatment to eradicate the bacteria. It's a very tough call.

Additionally, many theorists believe that H. Pylori is a result of poor sanitary conditions and/or poor preparation of food. Therefore, patients of asian decent almost always test positive for H. Pylori. Specifically, in Japan, stomach CA is the leading cause of death ... as it was in China & Korea in the not too distant past. I must conceed that I'm unsure about the efficacy of any herbal medicines -- but have found that some are actually poisonous to American patients (when I was in residency, I had a patient who nearly died by using herbal supplementation from an asian-herbalist). As I've mentioned in previous postings, the huge downfall with any "diet supplement" is the fact that the claims on the bottles do not have to be evaluated by the FDA (thanks to Ronald Regan in the 1980's) ... and often are completely unsubstantiated. There lacks a lot of peer-reviewed research on the efficacy & tolerability of "supplements" (an easy example appeared in one of the most recent issues of the New England Jounal of Medicine which discussed how echinacea is completely useless in the treatment of the "common cold" when tested at different stregnths & types).

On another point, I'm unsure of a pH monitoring test that derives 24-hour pH in the stomach itself. The BRAVO test is the one that a lot of GE's are using this test which measures intragastric pH in the esophogus. Additionally -- ENT's can sometimes use a pH test where pH is measured at the LES junction as well as at the top of the esophogus. the FEAS test is one that I often see -- which is the easiest one for detecting reflux. For more about pH control with medication, the only concrete study that I've read which tested all of the different PPI medications was a study by Philip Miner, MD at the OK Center for Digestive Research. It's a pretty interesting study. I don't know how they got people to participate .. but .. there it is.

good luck & health ... let me know if I can attempt to answer any other questions you might have.

coincidentally - yes, I am an MD.

best,
ckgMD

I am so happy to have found this message board today. My google search definitely paid off!

The information I just read makes me realize that I, too, should stop taking Nexium. I was diagnosed with acid reflux more than a year ago after a visit to the emergency room with severe back pain. I had experienced heartburn very often and did the usual "prop my head up" when in bed and avoided many foods that seemed to aggravate the condition. Well, as many other people have said, Nexium appeared to be the "wonder pill" as I no longer had the heartburn and could eat foods without any problem.

I've been concerned that I have continued to take it with no plan to stop. My doctor has continued to give me new scripts for refills so I took it every morning, as directed. I really think that the "fear" of getting the dreaded heartburn back is the only reason I've not looked into no longer taking it.

With a recent occurrence of a bout of vaginitis, I've been doing some research on the possible causes. Today I found, in only one site, that a possible side effect of taking Nexium could be vaginitis. No literature I read when I first started taking it nor in the past year has mentioned that at all.

As of tomorrow (I already took the purple pill today) I will stop taking it. I'll look into the plan to stop it gradually to see if that is necessary. I can manage heartburn again if I must and/or try something that is less problematic.

I will continue to read the posts here. It's good to see that not everyone wants to take medication "just because" it is prescribed. We need to ask more questions and do more research as medications are prescribed.

ckgMD WROTE:

I'm sorry that you're having such weird side effects with Nexium. Have you tried alternative PPI therapy?
I treat almost everyone in my practice with Nexium because I've found it to be safe and effective (unless managed care denies it). I must tell you, that I've never heard of such weird side effects from this medication. Are you taking any other medications? EffexorXR ... definately ... but Nexium, weird.

--- After reading hundreds and hundreds of posts from GERD sufferers experiencing "these weird side effects" from Nexium, it is really troubling to come upon a post from an MD saying that he "never heard of that before". This is the problem with the medical industry that frustrates all of us out here who actually DO suffer from the things we describe. DOCTORS DON'T LISTEN. Are there special classes in medical school that teach doctors to ignore the first-hand accounts of their patients, dismissing them as mere ramblings by obvious hypochondriacs? Do they take timed exams in college to see how fast they can go from the initial handshake to the hand-off of free pill samples? Don't get me wrong. Nexium and Prilosec do stop the pain from acid reflux. But at what cost to the patients? Doctors don't seem too concerned with side-effects and long-term problems caused by these wonder drugs. Any attempt to question the safety of them is rewarded with a condescending, "Don't worry, you'll be fine". Since moving to my present area 10 years ago, I have tried to find just ONE doctor who will actually listen to a complete sentance before jamming a tongue depressor in my mouth and sending me out the door with a bottle of pills. No such luck. And I am a normal, intellegent, level-headed individual. Not a crystal-hugging nut or anti-drug activist. Just a regular guy with acid reflux who wants REAL answers and REAL options which don't cause more symptoms than I already have.

--- PS: And why doesn't there seem to be any official research out there regarding the connection between acid reflux and heart skips. The message boards are full of people who experience that connection. And yet the medical industry seems to just shrug their shoulders & say it's normal.

Gerdman:

There are SOME doctors out there willing to do something. I printed out all 17 of these forum pages and showed them to my doctor (who also takes Nexium himself), and just from this, he's quitting Nexium and said he'd research it. For now, he's put me on Zantac 75's and is looking for herbal remedies.

I appreciate your reply. And hopefully you didn't take offense to my post. Certainly I know that all doctors are different in the way they treat patients. But something needs to change out there with regard to how patients are dealt with from the beginning of their visits. I totally agree with you that HMO's are a huge problem. They are bad for patients AND doctors, it seems. That's why I always choose PPO programs. It's worth paying extra to have a choice of doctors and treatments. But my message was really referring to the way that most doctors (most that I have encountered anyway) listen and talk to their patients initially. It is just frustrating to go into the office with first-hand knowledge of what symptoms and possible causes are effecting you, only to have the doctor listen to the first sentance out of your mouth and make their own conclusions, totally discounting any additional information you give them. I know I am not the only one who experiences that, either, given the amount of posts I have read here and on other sites. Sure, maybe the average low-IQ or busy worker-bee out there just wants to walk in and be given a magic bullet without having to think about the risks to their body. But consciencious consumers who really DO "know their bodies" would like more than that. The worst case I ever had was a Gastro doctor who listerally opened the door, coldly started blasting questions at me in a monotone voice, interupting me anytime I tried to comment further, then turned off the lights, shined lights in my eyes & nose & ears, poked and prodded every hole from head to toe, breathing and "hmmm"-ing without telling me any findings or what was coming next, then flipping on the lights and saying almost nothing before leaving. The secretary had to tell me to come back 2 weeks later, and I never heard ANY results from whatever the heck he did to me. It was like an alien abduction or something. Needless to say I never want back. And isn't it interesting that if you buy a product in a store or food in a restaurant you can return it or refuse to pay for it. But when you get a horrible doctor visit, you're stuck with the bill no matter what?

If you listen to your patients, keep them well-informed on your findings, and let them contribute to their treatments, then that's awsome. I respect that a lot. But there ARE a lot of very frustrated people out here who have not been lucky enough to find a doctor like that out here.