Question: I am a 42 year old woman who had a baby 2-1/2 months ago. About 2 years ago I was having problems with anxiety and depression and was taking Zoloft, with Ambien to help me sleep. A little over a year ago I began having serious memory and concentration problems. Eventually I also started passing out and had a couple of times when my blood sugar dropped. All of the tests (including a CT scan, but no MRI) I had done at the time were normal and I did not see a neurologist. At the time, I felt like all of the doctors thought I was hypochondriac once they found out that I was taking the Zoloft. I was no longer seeing my therapist at the time since he had released me because I was doing super and no longer showing signs of anxiety. After doing research on my own, I found out that Zoloft could in fact sometimes cause those types of symptoms and so I stopped taking it on my own (I gradually reduced my dosage first). About 2 days after I completely stopped the Zoloft I found out that I was pregnant. During the entire pregnancy I never had any problems with anxiety, depression, or memory issues. When my son was first born I did have extreme fatigue but I was also recovering from a c-section that had to be reopened twice to drain, slight infection, and anemia. I returned to work about 4 weeks ago and have been feeling much better…until a couple weeks ago. I suddenly started having problems again with my vision, memory, concentration, and even coordination. I’ve forgotten where I was a few times lately while I was driving (not really lost, just lost a few seconds of time and took me awhile to realize where I was), routine tasks such as shutting my car off and typing seem no longer automatic and I have to think through each step but it always feels weird, I have trouble getting the right words out, and sometimes I just wander around at home like I’m not sure what I’m doing or why I’m in a room, I even forgot I’d had another baby recently while talking about my older son. In the last couple of days I have also come close to passing out again. This time, I am not taking any medications at all other than a multi-vitamin so I know it isn’t from the Zoloft this time. I have not felt depressed or anxious. I have been under a lot of stress because of financial strain, but I haven’t felt “stressed” and we are dealing with that situation and I feel good about it. When I went to the ER last week, they did lab work and a CT scan (without contrast). I haven’t been able to get a neurologist appointment scheduled until March 2015. I haven’t had many headaches and the only thing I’ve noticed with my head is just an odd feeling in my forehead area, then the other day I began to have a slight tingling feeling in my head and face and pain in my lower jaw. Since my OB/Gyn is most familiar with my recent medical history, I do have an appointment with him later this week. My previous primary care physician left the practice she was in and so I am between doctors at the moment. I almost forgot to mention that dementia does run in both sides of my family, and particular early onset.

Here are my questions: Could this be anxiety or depression even though I don’t have other symptoms of anxiety or depression? Could this be postpartum depression even though I don’t feel depressed, have sleep issues, avoidance issues, etc? Could this be early onset dementia? Is there some neurological thing this could be that may have gone into remission during my pregnancy and be returning now that my hormones are getting back to normal? I don’t think it’s anything like a brain tumor or stroke. But, whatever it is does concern me since I have two young children.