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Suggest Cure For Stiffness In Shoulder And Arm Caused After Taking Geodon

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Posted on Wed, 7 May 2014
Question: Hi my question is about my daughter she is mentally and she was taking geodon for two years then she star having side efect her right side off the body si stiff for amonth the neorology said that it will go away but I am seeing her the same from her shoulder to her arm I am very worried for her are this stiffness is going to go away or what I should do please
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Answered by Dr. Srikanth Reddy (3 hours later)
Brief Answer: It could be an EPS symptoms Detailed Answer: Hello, Thanks for choosing health care magic for posting your query. I have gone through your question in detail and I can understand what you are going through. Geodon is ziprasidone and it is one of the newer atypical anti-psychotic. Although it is good drug as it doesnt cause weight gain and metabolic abnormalities but it may cause another side-effect called extra pyramidal syndrome which has happened in your case. This occurs due to excess dopamine blockage in the nigrostriatal tract in the brain. The stiffness which your daughter is complaining could be due to the extra pyramidal syndrome side-effect and it will require you to switch your medication from geodon to either olanzapine or quetiapine which are relatively safer as compared to geodon in causing extra pyramidal syndrome side-effect. Further she may take some trihexyphenidyl in the morning to improve with the stiffness. Only one thing which goes against it is is the pain in the shoulder. EPS will never cause pain and if the pain is there then there is a possibility that she might have harmed herself by a fall or some awkward posture. Get an X-ray of the shoulder done and if it is normal then you may have to get an MRI scan of the shoulder done. X-ray will show bony problems where as MRI will show if there is any soft tissue problems. If both of them come normal, then it is for sure due to drugs. However if something comes up, then it may not be cause of the drugs and the drugs can continue. So in brief, visit an orthopedician, get some X-rays and MRI done. IF everything is normal then meet your psychiatrist and get the medications changed. Hope I am able to answer your concerns. If you have any further query, I would be glad to help you. If not, you may close the discussion and if possible you may rate the answer for me, so that I get a good feedback. In future if you wish to contact me directly, you can use the below mentioned link: bit.ly/dr-srikanth-reddy Wish you good health, Kind regards Dr. Srikanth Reddy M.D.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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Dr. Srikanth Reddy

Psychiatrist

Practicing since :2007

Answered : 2770 Questions

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Suggest Cure For Stiffness In Shoulder And Arm Caused After Taking Geodon

Brief Answer: It could be an EPS symptoms Detailed Answer: Hello, Thanks for choosing health care magic for posting your query. I have gone through your question in detail and I can understand what you are going through. Geodon is ziprasidone and it is one of the newer atypical anti-psychotic. Although it is good drug as it doesnt cause weight gain and metabolic abnormalities but it may cause another side-effect called extra pyramidal syndrome which has happened in your case. This occurs due to excess dopamine blockage in the nigrostriatal tract in the brain. The stiffness which your daughter is complaining could be due to the extra pyramidal syndrome side-effect and it will require you to switch your medication from geodon to either olanzapine or quetiapine which are relatively safer as compared to geodon in causing extra pyramidal syndrome side-effect. Further she may take some trihexyphenidyl in the morning to improve with the stiffness. Only one thing which goes against it is is the pain in the shoulder. EPS will never cause pain and if the pain is there then there is a possibility that she might have harmed herself by a fall or some awkward posture. Get an X-ray of the shoulder done and if it is normal then you may have to get an MRI scan of the shoulder done. X-ray will show bony problems where as MRI will show if there is any soft tissue problems. If both of them come normal, then it is for sure due to drugs. However if something comes up, then it may not be cause of the drugs and the drugs can continue. So in brief, visit an orthopedician, get some X-rays and MRI done. IF everything is normal then meet your psychiatrist and get the medications changed. Hope I am able to answer your concerns. If you have any further query, I would be glad to help you. If not, you may close the discussion and if possible you may rate the answer for me, so that I get a good feedback. In future if you wish to contact me directly, you can use the below mentioned link: bit.ly/dr-srikanth-reddy Wish you good health, Kind regards Dr. Srikanth Reddy M.D.