Personality change

[cecilia]

My husband had open heart surgery two years ago. While in the hospital he was given Lipitor and Atenolol. After four or five days he noticed that he was becoming anxious and depressed and asked his doctor if he could have something for this. His doctor refused on the grounds that he was on too many new drugs. He returned home to recover but as time passed became extremely angry and said that he couldn't control his thoughts. He thought he was going crazy. The gentle, loving husband, became an angry tyrant. The children couldn't do anything right. We were constantly critisized and yelled at. It went so far that my once loving husband slapped my then 10 year old son so hard that he was unconcious.
To make a long story short, he "ran" away from home, has told people that the children and I abused him and publicly anounced that I was so abused in my passed life that I was unable to be lived with. My husband is a minister. He now uses his position to slander the children and I without anyone questioning the authenticity of what he says because he IS a minister and ministers don't lie.

Before these drugs my husband couldn't have lied for anything, he was horrified with himself because he had spanked his son ONCE, now he was a raging fury that finds no good in us.

After the first month (post surgery) I told his doctor that he was very angry and depressed. The doctor cut back the Atenolol by a half and told my husband to address his depression. Of course it was too late for any of these measures since by then he believed that the children and I were the new cause of his anger and he couldn't be depressed it was all our fault, so why do anything about it.

I repeatedly tried to contact his doctor, begging for him to remove or change the drugs to no avail. At one point the nurse tod me that since my husband hadn't updated his HIPPA contact list in a year that she would, and removed me from it. This effectively eliminated any personal contact with the doctor.

I actually got my husband to go to counseling with me. After 3 sessions the counselor asked me to stay after Jim stormed out in a screaming rage. The counselor asked me why I stayed in this relationship when I was being so abused. I then told him about the drugs and the doctors refusal to listen.

There have been times that I have lost sight that Jims anger is caused by drugs and my reaction has been far from loving or supportive, but on the whole I have kept in mind that my loving husband was still that deep within and someday he would be back. I told other ministers, when Jim was verbally abusive to people in their churches, that it was the drugs.

A friend of mine wisely suggested that I send a registered letter to the doctor. With her help I wrote a plea for the well being of my husband. Supported by the family pharmacist with the knowledge that one percent of all people meant that one out of one hundred actually had horrible drug reactions, one counselor and Two doctors of psycology(my loving sister being one) with knowledge of drug related personality disorders, friends that knew the Jim of before, Duanne Graveline with his personal support, and the greatest of the energy given by a God that always holds me up, I unashamedly begged the doctor for the removal of Jims drugs.

Well, between a great patient advocate at the heart hosital and my letter, the doctor wrote a letter to Jim telling him to stop all drugs.

For a month Jim then called me and was kind, until he decided to return to other (probably only in name) drugs. Once again he is angry, accusitory and now tells people that his wife is contacting his doctors with malicious lies.

Is there a lawyer anywhere in Nebraska that isn't afraid to take on a doctor that wouldn't listen until all was lost. I have had to sell half of my farm, get a legal seperation from my husband, take him to court for short term financial support, my financial loss has been great, my children have been slandered and hurt beyond compare by the changing of a loving father into a raging terror that ran away (almost driving over a child) and never spoke to them again, instead speaking to anyone that would listen, saying that they abused him!

Drugs that can change a soft spoken, gentle man into an angry nervous wreck that can lie ought to be banned!

Please, for your families, stop before it's too late and you forget that you loved them! Was the surgery necessary or are the drugs? Change your diet, excercise, love your self and your family enough to make the intellegent choice. Life is to precious to waste time experimenting with mental dath. Go drug free and live!

[sos_group_owner]

Hi Cecilia,

My heart goes out to you and everyone that has suffered not only the
side effects of these destructive drugs but the total loss of a formerly
harmonious and loving relationship.

Your situation goes way beyond medical malpractice.

I'm speechless... and that doesn't happen very often.

Fran

[slacckk]

[http://www.mercola.com/2000/mar/26/cholesterol_depression.htm]

Low Cholesterol Linked to Depression


Results of a study conducted by Dutch researchers provide additional evidence for a link between low cholesterol levels and an increased risk of depression in men. Investigators measured serum cholesterol levels in some 30,000 men, as part of a large screening program.

They compared the presence of depressive symptoms, anger, hostility, and impulsivity in these men, to men with cholesterol levels in the normal range. They found that men with chronically low cholesterol levels showed a consistently higher risk of having depressive symptoms.

Cholesterol may affect the metabolism of serotonin, a substance known to be involved in the regulation of mood as the researchers have previously shown that serotonin levels are also reduced in men with low levels of cholesterol.

Psychosomatic Medicine 2000;62.

[http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/men/06/30/low.cholesterol.wmd/index.html]

[ironic]

http://www.spacedoc.net/depression_statins.htm

[trish]

Dear Cecilia

Thank you for your posting - now I don't feel so alone. I haven't been into this site for months and pleased I logged in today because I got to read your post.

My partner Chris was on Lipitor 8 or more years when I met him. He was also taking more drugs - for muscle pain, pain relief, depression...... and suffering sexual dysfunction.

I didn't know him until 3 years ago so didn't know the previous personality - but was shocked when the person I thought was wonderful very quickly turned into a raging tyrant. He lost control round about the time of our first long telephone conversation and accused me of trying to "tell him what to do" when he asked about suggestions for chronic fatigue syndrome which was one of his health problems, then later denied he asked me at all. I wasn't telling him what to do, I was making suggestions about diet and lifestyle.... and I was very shocked!

Then I discovered he was having car accidents and going through red lights - then there was the memory loss and it was like having a relationship with someone who could barely remember your name let along anything important you said - really destroying....

When I did some investigation into statin drugs after a month I came up with a lot of info and felt this was the problem, but he refused to listen (his sister was a nurse and also taking them and backing him up) - he would just scream at me - and he started badmouthing me to his family and ex-girlfriend and friends and this really hurt.... He was also paranoid and accusing me of things that weren't real.......

He would fly off the handle at the slightest thing and try and shout me down and be really irrational. Sometimes I thought it might have been his difficult family background but discovered his father had had a heart bypass and given statin drugs and told the family needed testing for cholesterol levels, so two of them were also put on Lipitor.

Eventually over a year ago he stopped taking the pills but still has the chemical smell the drugs gave him, and memory problems and some anger issues. But he is much better - however I am now struggling to cope with the short fuse still and things that have been said.

Like you Cecilia, eventually there have been times I have acted far less than supportive, and actively gone on the attack just to not be so trodden on and abused and to reclaim my battered self-esteem.

I felt he was trying to tell everyone I was trying to harm him by getting him to stop the drugs - in fact the contrary was true and I was very deeply hurt by this accusation. I also feel his family and friends felt that I was trying to harm him too, as they really want to believe in drugs and the medical system.

He justified his personality changes and memory loss by always saying "I was always like that" and sometimes I have put it down to other things, including family background. But nobody is born like that, or that extreme without reason...

I don't know what can be done about the things that were said to me apart from counselling - at least I understand why now...

He still suffers some sexual dysfunction and it is heartbreaking and I know this is because of the statins.....

I have had problems dealing with his sister because I felt she was wielding control and trying to undermine the relationship by pushing him to keep taking the drugs - assuming some type of power and control because she is a nurse....

It breaks my heart to see him beat himself up because of his behaviour - and I hope one day he really understands it was the drugs and not because he really is an evil person, which he is not....

The problem is that he keeps going to the doctor to get his cholesterol level checked, even though with my help he has made diet and lifestyle changes - and recently the lab results said it was high and required pharmacological intervention. I think the GPs are truly evil, as they don't have to live with the consequences...... I am always frightened that he will cave in to this kind of pressure and go back on the drugs, and I will be frightened again......

Sadly I really think that without the drug damage and drug-induced psychosis we would have been fine - some days I secretly hate him for the things he said and the way he tried to crush my spirit......