# went off Lexapro, discovered IBS



## katyd1d (Apr 5, 2010)

I've been on Lexapro for a couple years (and on and off Zoloft before that) for anxiety and depression. I'd been doing really well, and was starting to get tired of the side effects (specifically, reduced ability to orgasm). My psychiatrist suggested I wean myself off the Lexapro.I started cutting them in half, and started noticing some tummy problems (mainly diarrhea). I stopped them completely, and started having serious abdominal pain. I went to a GI specialist who told me about the connection.Has this happened to anyone else? I've started Hyoscyamine, and if it doesn't work, I'll get a colonoscopy. GI suggested I not get back on the Lexapro unless I have to. I appreciate that, but it's not like I have any sex life at all with this pain!Is IBS really that connected to anxiety/brain chemistry? It doesn't seem like anyone knows what causes it.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

More that the nerves in the gut use all the exact same chemical the nerves in your brain use and and the drugs have no idea which nerves they were intended to effect.IBS is often treated with antidepressants even in people who do not have any depression or anxiety.It takes a vast neural net (complicated enough to be called a second brain) to make the GI tract work properly and for you to sense it correctly. Often in IBS people feel pain from things that should not be triggering pain nerves. Antidepressants are good at blocking those inappropriate pain signals for a lot of different painful conditions. Also serotonin is used by the gut in both "speed it up" and "slow it down" signals so several drugs developed for IBS are targeted at serotonin receptors.


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