# SSRI Memory Loss/Problems



## chris87 (Jul 13, 2008)

Before taking an SSRI, I always had a very sharp memory. I could remember very vividly what I had done over the past week, etc. I started taking Lexapro in November 2008 and switched to Zoloft in April 2009. I stopped taking SSRIs completely at the end of April. I noticed that while I was on the SSRI, my memory was terrible. This problem did not go away when I stopped taking the medication, which really bothers me. I tried explaining this to my PDoc, but he doesn't think I'm serious. I can't even remember what I did yesterday (what I ate, where I went, etc.). I've never been like this before, and it's really upsetting.

Has anyone had this happen?


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## Neptunus (Oct 29, 2007)

Yes, I have the same problem.


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## Forza Italia (Oct 30, 2009)

How long did you take it and what was the dosage ?


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## Clearly Obscure (May 22, 2009)

I've had this happen on just about every SSRI I've taken...I think it's just a common side effect, unfortunately.


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## chris87 (Jul 13, 2008)

Forza Italia said:


> How long did you take it and what was the dosage ?


I took it from November 2008 to April 2009. For the majority of this time, I was on 20mg of Lexapro.


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## arth67 (Aug 6, 2009)

a poor memory is a common early side effect but I havent heard of this continuing after stopping the med
perhaps the poor memory now is caused by stress or anxiety


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## Neptunus (Oct 29, 2007)

I wouldn't be surprised if something comes out sooner or later about there being a correlation. My memory didn't recover when I discontinued my meds either.


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## BusterBluth (Sep 21, 2009)

Has anyone had any success with nootropics or are those generally regarded as overpriced vitamins/sugar pills?


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## BusterBluth (Sep 21, 2009)

rocknroll714 said:


> Lessee.. psychostimulants (amphetamines, methylphenidate, etc), huperzine A (and other acetylcholinesterase inhibitors), ginkgo biloba, and nicotine are all good nootropics. I haven't tried huperzine A or ginkgo biloba myself, but I've heard great things about the former from friends. euphoria on here said a combination of huperzine A and nicotine was "the most aware I've ever felt in my entire life". I dunno about any of the others like racetams and such.


As always, much obliged, sir.


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## euphoria (Jan 21, 2009)

> I've made some posts about the exact same thing. I was on various SSRIs for a total of about three years, and went off them because they didn't improve my mood much. I noticed a year or so in that my memory was going to crap, and by the time I went off pills completely my memory was shot. I'm not sure if the SSRIs are entirely responsible for this, or if developing SA/generalized anxiety somewhere down the line contributed somehow.
> 
> I no longer feel capable of remembering much, and all my days blend in together. Even special occurrences rarely stick - I can recall them very, very vaguely and they always feel very indistinct. My autobiographical memory has also been obliterated: I really can't remember my childhood at all anymore. It's devastating, to be honest, and I'm just living day-to-day because I have no mental record of what my life's been like. Oddly though, my memory has been serving me okay academically - I can still do rote memorization and such, but ask me what I did last week and I won't even know.
> 
> ...


A similar thing happened to me. Couldn't attribute it solely to SSRIs, but I'm pretty sure they played a part. Episodic memory is so weak compared to how it used to be.



> Has anyone had any success with nootropics or are those generally regarded as overpriced vitamins/sugar pills?


I've tried a few nootropics, and they definitely did work. Likewise, there are plenty out there that don't work.

One target for nootropics is the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Some examples that boost its function: lecithin, galantamine and huperzine A. My experience with huperzine was a dramatic improvement in cognitive abilities (including memory), but also a noticeable shift towards depression and anxiety. Also it made me feel pretty nauseous. They are probably more useful in a larger stack rather than alone, due to the mood effects, but I never experimented much with them. Also I wouldn't know the safety of long term use.



rocknroll714 said:


> Lessee.. psychostimulants (amphetamines, methylphenidate, etc), huperzine A (and other acetylcholinesterase inhibitors), ginkgo biloba, and nicotine are all good nootropics. I haven't tried huperzine A or ginkgo biloba myself, but I've heard great things about the former from friends, and the latter has been shown to dose-dependently improve memory functioning in human clinical studies (it's a subunit-selective GABAA receptor negative allosteric modulator of some kind -- lookup bilobalide)


Which could reverse benzo cognitive effects. Even so, I'd still be concerned about disinhibition.


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## Vini Vidi Vici (Jul 4, 2009)

i had memory loss terribly on Paxil and Zoloft. I cannot remember much except a few selected events from a whole 9 month time period. totally abolished my memory...people tell me i did crazy things, i can barely remember anything. 

Ginkgo biloba reduced the sexual dysfunction/memory loss from SSRIs, but it also gave me a headache and made anxiety/OCD a little bit worse.


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## RockiNToM (Jun 15, 2009)

I had very, very bad memory loss on Effexor but not on any other SSRI. It was so bad I was starting to worry a few people I knew lol.


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## richardcruz (Jan 23, 2010)

polythene said:


> . Oddly though, my memory has been serving me okay academically - I can still do rote memorization and such, but ask me what I did last week and I won't even know.


Wow if there wasn't a quote that pretty much sums up how I feel!!This completely describes me. I was on celexa for about 3 years and it's been about a year since i've stopped. My memory serves my academically too. I'm just about finished with my undergrad and I haven't really found that my memory problems have interfered my school. However I suffer from terrible memory in general. People will ask me what I did on my weekends and I'll sit down and try to remember for the life of me what I did but nothing will surface. Very commonly I will be paying something at the cashier and I won't remember the attendant handing back my debit card. I'm not talking just an instance or two. I'm talking this kind of occurence happens to me all the time. Most notably my ability to communicate has been impared. I've noticed that I've become a much slower communicator because it takes me a while to jog through my vocabulary bank to find the word that I'm looking for. Many times during a conversation, I'll pause midway through my conversation and stare at the wall or at the floor for maybe 3-4 seconds searching for the right word.


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## Neptunus (Oct 29, 2007)

richardcruz said:


> I've noticed that I've become a much slower communicator because it takes me a while to jog through my vocabulary bank to find the word that I'm looking for. Many times during a conversation, I'll pause midway through my conversation and stare at the wall or at the floor for maybe 3-4 seconds searching for the right word.


Yep, same here! As if it isn't difficult enough for us to make small chat...


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## BusterBluth (Sep 21, 2009)

Do we think these 'my memory/word recall is crap' feelings are caused by SSRIs and/or other prescriptions or do we think that this is something we may have experienced before taking any such medication or would be noticing/complaining about now had we not taken the drugs? 

To a degree, I feel like such experiences are par for the SA course. So I think it's tough to blame the drugs for the memory/mental fluency issues.


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## insight girl (Jan 15, 2006)

I thought I was the only one expereincing this problem. I used to have a great memory and after I got off Lexapro I couldn't and still can't remember a thing. And I have never had low self-esteem about my memory either... I used to brag about to everyone . I thought it was just me getting older (the big 30 now). I've been off my meds for over a year now and it's not getting any better... :|


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## meyaj (Sep 5, 2009)

BusterBluth said:


> Do we think these 'my memory/word recall is crap' feelings are caused by SSRIs and/or other prescriptions or do we think that this is something we may have experienced before taking any such medication or would be noticing/complaining about now had we not taken the drugs?
> 
> To a degree, I feel like such experiences are par for the SA course. So I think it's tough to blame the drugs for the memory/mental fluency issues.


For nearly the last year or so I've noticed a sharp decline in the quality of my writing. It's something I've usually excelled in but oftentimes now I re-read one of my posts and it's worse than if I had been typing drunk or something! Unfinished words, extra words, incorrect words, not conjugating verbs, totally incoherent sentences. On a huge scale.

That NEVER used to happen to me. My SA/other mental issues aren't getting any worse, and cognitive decline at 23 doesn't make a huge amount of sense either. I'm not sure if I can blame it directly on the drugs though... I just don't know what to attribute it to.


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## martyboi (Sep 18, 2009)

I think alcohol should probably take most of the blame, in my case atleast...


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## pboy (Jul 18, 2009)

One of the first things I noticed when going on Lexapro was my short term memory became messed up. And it's still pretty bad now as I taper off it. Some days worse than others. I've taken tyrosine supplements that sometimes helps me stay focused.


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## VeggieGirl (Dec 11, 2009)

I feel like from speaking with people who have SAD having a bad memory seems to come with it.
I have a terrible memory, sometimes so bad I annoy people with it and they sometimes feel like I am lying.


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## meyaj (Sep 5, 2009)

VeggieGirl said:


> I feel like from speaking with people who have SAD having a bad memory seems to come with it.
> I have a terrible memory, sometimes so bad I annoy people with it and they sometimes feel like I am lying.


Yep. Pisses off my psychiatrist to no end when she asks for an example of something I said and I'm inevitably like, "uuhhhh....". I tend to remember how I FELT and what what was running through my head at the time but the details of an actually situation are totally lost on me when somebody asks me to recount something that seemed fairly insignificant at the time.


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## euphoria (Jan 21, 2009)

I seem to recall bad memory when on SSRIs before. But I was taking other stuff, and basically don't remember 90% of the past 2 years so I couldn't say for sure.


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## koblin3426 (Mar 27, 2010)

So I don't know much, but I've been reading these forums and several add forums for a while. This is definitely speculation lol, but I keep reading how the brain will attempt to balance neurotransmitters/chemicals in your brain (homeostasis).

It would seem possible then, that an SSRI would decrease norepinephrine and/or dopamine in the brain in an attempt to balance itself. A significant enough decrease in these chemicals would indeed cause memory issues, but I'm not sure if that's the cause.

I know when I was on wellbutrin I had TERRIBLE memory loss but I still can't find out why. I thought it had something to do with the way it inhibits the CYP2B6 enzyme, but now I can't find anything on google that supports where I read that originally.

All of this talk scares me because I wanted to try Lexapro for GAD/SA but I'm afraid of memory loss!

Dopamine/Working memory:
http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/short/25/10/2471

Norepinephrine/Long term memory:
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/159/8/1420

PS: My memory loss from wellbutrin wasn't permanent.


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## meyaj (Sep 5, 2009)

Well SSRIs have your body trying to brain trying to balance out serotonin, and possibly with Zoloft, dopamine in a very slight way, but otherwise they shouldn't affect dopamine/norepinephrine. There are definitely case reports though were long-term SSRI uses has actually brought people down to BELOW baseline regarding serotonin, but I think in most cases you tend to stay above that point (although it no doubt diminishes) as long as you remain on the medication.

This is the reason why people experience withdrawal symptoms after discontinuing SSRIs, and the receptors will typically upregulate back close to normal fairly quickly.


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## pboy (Jul 18, 2009)

meyaj said:


> This is the reason why people experience withdrawal symptoms after discontinuing SSRIs, and the receptors will typically upregulate back close to normal fairly quickly.


I came across this thread again while searching for ginkgo.

About the part quoted above, I have read elsewhere that although the receptors upregulate again, there are other problems occuring in the meantime, which is explained here:

http://bipolarblast.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/gabaglutamate/

One thing is for sure, many people take a long time to get "back to normal" after coming off an SSRI. Take a look on the site paxil progress.


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## Kon (Oct 21, 2010)

chris87 said:


> I noticed that while I was on the SSRI, my memory was terrible... Has anyone had this happen?


I don't remember


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## StarDS (Jul 5, 2010)

Just coming off lexapro 20mg after about 6 months. One of the reasons being poor short term memory while on it. I hope it doesn't continue whilst off it.


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## gordonjohnson008 (Nov 2, 2008)

Ah, this thread sums up why I quit Paxil. At age 24 my memory was going awry - vocaublary recall was the most obvious sign. My historically florid vocabulary was deteriorating, I was having trouble finding words, I was almost stuttering when I talked, I felt like an early dementia patient might, it was so frustrating. Besides bad vocabulary recal, my short-term working set seemed diminished. I'm a professional engineer, and keeping all the datapoints in my head at one time and remembering details was difficult. I also seemd to do a poorer job of preserving facts and details than my coworkers and than I would expect out of myself. I also had problems with concentration and staying on task that I never had before.

It's basically been 8 months off meds and I feel basically back to normal. I still have the problems I described earlier but the degree has diminished to a point where they are almost negligible, except for the concentration issues. I used to be able to work for hours straight on a problem or assignment, but now that's much harder for me. I'm still working on this.


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## Raptors (Aug 3, 2009)

Any other experiences? I have been off for 2 months and still have concentration and memory problems. Very worried this will be permanent


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## Bacon (Jul 4, 2010)

Yep DEFIANTLY Got that on Zoloft. Zoloft was a cognitive behavior wrecking ball. Im on Paxil now and im getting less memory issues. Now that i stopped Zoloft my memory is slowly recovering and my tremors i had on it are slowly going away (Was on Zoloft for 8 months)


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## chris87 (Jul 13, 2008)

My memory and concentration still have not fully recovered since stopping Lexapro/Zoloft nearly two years ago. It will be two years in April. It's very upsetting to think that I used to have a razor sharp memory. I wish I never took an SSRI in the first place.


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## THouseMD (Mar 2, 2011)

Yea my working memory seemed the most adversely effected on SSRIs. I also had the word finding difficulties which killed my florid vocabulary. Another odd speech anomaly was the inability to explain things that required length or detail. It was like a buffer overflow making me trail off at the end of sentences.


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## popeet (Dec 8, 2005)

Bacon said:


> Yep DEFIANTLY Got that on Zoloft. Zoloft was a cognitive behavior wrecking ball. Im on Paxil now and im getting less memory issues. Now that i stopped Zoloft my memory is slowly recovering and my tremors i had on it are slowly going away (Was on Zoloft for 8 months)


I second this with Zoloft. I was on maximum dose for 2 years. I felt like I got brain damage. I also still have head shocks. I felt like I ended up with a major hole in my brain. Every med I take though, including Lamictal, I feel like I'm left with early dementia.

Really, SSRIs are the thing that first caused my serious brain problems-- I first got derealization in 1994 after taking Prozac (and later LSD, and then PCP, and being poisoned, and then dissociating in a bookstore, hehe.)


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## Virgo14 (Jul 21, 2011)

Oh wow, I'm so glad I found this. I've been having the same experiences--my vocabulary is not the same and my working memory is severely compromised. I was taking 20 mg of Cipralex and for 10 months and 300 mg of Wellbutrin for 4 months. I reported it to my doctor and my therapist and they both told me it was a common side effect and that it wasn't permanent. Been off of them for 3 months but I'm not sure it's any better.

I've been playing online brain games to try to stimulate my brain and regain or improve my cognitive function. If anybody has any suggestions, I'm open. I want to steer clear of any kind of medication, though.


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## friedkrill (Jun 27, 2013)

*um*

I registered for this forum just now and can't remember why.
zoloft 11 years.


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## GotAnxiety (Oct 14, 2011)

^^LOL, am i the only one that got improved memory and eye sight from taking ssri along with lower bloodpressure? It all faded now that im off that crap tho. Who knows maybe it came from active and healthy living induced by the ssri. It can probably be induced without a ssri.


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## eyecon86 (Oct 14, 2015)

*same problem*

I took zoloft for around a year and it completely destroyed my memory. more than 3 years later and it has not gotten better, if anything it is worse. i used to have a great memory, but now find it hard to remember even basic things at times. i used to be an avid reader but have a hard time concentrating and trouble retaining what i have read.

like some above said, with repetition i can do work related tasks, when things get to be more of a reflexive memory it seems to be not much of an issue.

what is truly horrible though is the long term memory loss. i cant remember huge swaths of my life. the names of high school teachers, places ive visited, the names of friends i fell out of touch with, whole years of my life just seem to have been erased.

does anyone know if there is any way to heal from this? is there any way to get a doctor to take you seriously? are there any treatments? and are those memories gone for good?

i am about to have my first child and this is suddenly something i realize i need to really address, and i hope it is not too late.

thanks for any help.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

I wish I could forget taking all that crap. Wasted years of my life and produced endless frustration -- but I clearly remember it all.


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