lithium and vision problems

Does anyone have bad vision problems from Lithium? I'm about to loose my mind. ever since i started lithium my eyes have been going funky. As in fading in and out or seeing weird spots or patterns even with eyes closed. eye dr didn't find anything. I also have a rare Optic Nerve Drusen. now my vision kept fading in and house every time i do something or my heart rate goes up. now the problem came but didn't' go. appears permanent. my blind spot with distortion in my left eye has been here for 3-4 days and now my peripheral vision to the right side of the left eye down to the bottom side is dim and doesn't see my finger. my finger disappears in those spots as everything else. and the rest of my vision appears as though the house has a hazy smoke everywhere or looking through a veil. my lifelong worst fear is here. photography and blindness don't mix.

Uh...my advice is to visit a Doctor immediately

I agree with Shazerac

I agree with the above posters.
Please see an opthamologist ASAP!
Please contact your prescribing physician and report these symptoms ASAP, too.


WC

i am going in to the eye dr on monday. the nurse called back and said to drop my lithium to half till my appointment on friday. I hope there's no permanant damage. i talked to the eye dr on the emergency number and he thought it could wait till monday. I'm scared. my left eye is next to worthless right now. i hope my right eye don't get this!!!!

Perhaps the lithium is aggravating your condition with your eyes. Did you gain weight from the lithium? Maybe that caused your blood sugar to go up? Just some thoughts to consider and have the docs check.

I got an MRI done and waiting for a Lumbar puncture. my ophthalmologist said my optic nerve is swollen. i'm almost weaned off of lithium. my little blind spots seem to be better still a ways to go. i can read the alarm clock without moving my eye around like before so i think it's slowly clearing up. I think the lithium created to much cerebral spinal fluid causing more pressure. That's what the dr thinks now. But i am so tired in the front of my brain. I don't know if it's from compensating for the bad eye or the ablilify or both. but i lost interest in everything important to me. It gradually got worse after starting abilify. all i feel like doing is laying down and sleeping. it feels too hard to sit at the computer or sit or stand anywhere.

Oh wow, I’m sorry you are going through this

I hope your vision continues to get better

I am so sorry you are feeling so poorly

thanks. I hope i get better soon. all I want to do is sleep more then usual. I hope abillify gets better for me before all the fall weather is wasted sleeping away.

It's a temporary side effect, but very rare.

*Ocular
Frequency not reported: Blurred vision, transient scotomata/scotoma[Ref]
Blurred vision occurred at levels above 2 mEq/L.[Ref]

Scotomata/scotoma are blind spots in an otherwise normal field of vision.

would it be the abillify making me tired and not able to function normally? I can't read too tired. can't get out of bed too tired. but can't sleep much during the day time because I"m not tired enough. like i'm caught in limbo or purgatory. it sucks. Is it the ablilify or my bad eye screwing my brain up? I'm scared I'm going to be this way the rest of my life.

So i 'm looking at options for a mood stabilizer. my ablilify has turned me into a zombie and i stopped taking it. i have been bedridden for the most part since Sunday morning. same last Wednesday.

So I see Topamax looks scary. see here:

Ocular

Common (1% to 10%): Vision blurred, diplopia, visual disturbance
Uncommon (0.1% to 1%): Visual acuity reduced, scotoma, myopia, abnormal sensation in eye, dry eye, photophobia, blepharospasm, lacrimation increased, photopsia, mydriasis, presbyopia
Rare (less than 0.1%): Blindness unilateral, blindness transient, glaucoma, accommodation disorder, altered visual depth perception, scintillating scotoma, eyelid edema, night blindness, amblyopia
Frequency not reported: Angle closure glaucoma, maculopathy, eye movement disorder[Ref]
-------------------------


Way too much eye symptoms to worry about. yuck. blindness and glaucoma etc. no way.
Depakote doesn't look too bad.

Ocular

Very common (10% or more): Amblyopia/blurred vision, diplopia
Common (1% to 10%): Abnormal vision, conjunctivitis, diplopia, dry eyes, eye pain[Ref]

---------------------------------

Any psych meds you know about that is awful or good? The tegrat I used to be on made me think i had something wrong with my stomach so many times. i had bad stomach problems. i even had a colonoscopy done. when i went off of it i hardly had issues since.

Listen, should you wait until Monday? I've definitely had vision weirdness from meds, but nothing as extreme as you've described. Can you call your eye doc and tell them you need an appointment sooner?

I've already been to the eye dr as i described on the post before a previous post. Now i am trying to get a appointment sooner with the pdoc over this awful tiredness issue i'm having. i went through a tiredness where i can't hold my eyes open while riding in a car for any lenght of time. upped the dosage and can't function at all and bed ridden. now i stopped the med on my own and went back through the tiredness in the car today. so i know my dosage is wearing off. i got restless tonight and went for a short 3 block walk jog. then a shower and a few chores. I feel like i might be getting better slowly tonight. I hope. i hate purgatory. God i hope that really doesn't exist for people heaven yes but if nothing at all that is scary. I hope i don't suddenly die. i know another client from my agency that died and she was only in her 20's. i know she had schizophrenia and was sick right before it happened. I think I am sowly getting better based on how much i'm typing now. lol.

update: Still on the computer. that's the first time i was on the computer this long after the last few days. before it was like 5 mins was all i could take then had to go lay down. now it's been over an hour. Still have that weird feeling a little bit behind my eyes. not sure if it's meds or bad eye that's doing it. would being half blind in one eye cause the mind to be chronically tired or that weird feeling? can't wait to as the eye dr about it.

Oh wait you're talking about my first post about them making me wait till monday right? Yeah long time to wait for something that could be critical like blood being cut off from the optic nerve or retina. that can cause damage in hours or days.

update: I feel back to my normal self and fine now. that abillify has been the culprit all along. must be too much for me. Does this mean all anti psychotics would be this way for me? I hate to try others. also the feeling behind my eyes went away too.

No, it doesn't mean all APs will cause vision problems. I had bad visual issues on abilify that made me have to stop taking it but since then I've been on many other APs and I don't remember any others causing any visual issues on any of them aside from needing to wear sunglasses because of sun sensitivity.

Hopefully they'll get you on meds that work without so many problems. Sometimes it takes a while and a lot of patience.

The vision problems started with Lithium. i'm weaning off lithium for abilify but abilify turned me into a zombie so i stopped taking it. But today i still feel that tired feeling in my head again. will it come and go for awhile or days till it's all out of my system?

It did for me when I came off abilify. The worst was done in a couple days and the rest of it (I had akathesia, vision problems and low blood pressure so I fell a few times) slowly dissipated. I felt much better quickly.

I don't know what effect the lithium issues will have for you. I've gone off it for toxicity a few times without any immediately noticeable effects.

I'm sure glad you're doing better. No, not all AP's would cause the same issues that Abilify did.

That sounds awful what you went through. The anti psychotics are scary meds. Some people can take them. My mom takes ablilify for anixieties and she's perfectly fine on it. go figure. I"m still struggling all afternoon. i walked around the neighborhood this morning and till some of the yard to plant more grass this afternoon. none of which helped. and damn I'm so hot blooded for some reason. it's 67 degrees out but it felt like 80. i even broke a sweat. i don't know if it's cause i gained 5 pounds this summer or the meds. I did notice when i started feeling better last night i wasn't hot blooded anymore and was slightly cold like i normally would be. But this morning with the tiredness feeling came back the hot blooded did too.

Thanks. today it started all over again yucky. I am afraid to try other AP's after all this.

I didn't mean to scare you.

I know after a bad experience with APs it can be hard to try them again. Maybe your pdoc can find something else to stabilize you. But if you do need them again, all of them are different. You may never have another problem with them. I had a try several before I found one that worked for me but my body is really weird with meds. Many people do great on abilify. Many do great on their first AP. Other times it takes some experimentation. Something will work for you. You just have to hold onto that hope and know it is true.

Sorry in advance for the long post but after procrastinating I want to update everyone on my situation. I had a lumbar puncture and a MRI. the LP showed 27 and the high normal cutoff is 20. So my eye dr dxed me with Pseudo Tumor Cerbri or Idiopathic Intracranial Hypotension. The guy that did my LP did agree with me that the lithium can cause that and he's heard of it causing it before. I was referred to a neuro surgeon in Topeka and they even mentioned lithium. my case is rare because i don't get the bad migraines. They're looking into the possibility of a blood clot or venous thrombosis if i got that right. They ordered me another LP and MRI/MRV and since I'm taking diamox for the increased cerebral spinal fluid the LP was 23 still not normal. in more of a grey area. The MRI i got a copy of and from watching lectures and webinars on Youtube and comparing images on websites i think i have venous thrombosis because my blood vessels or arteries in my brain are faint or non existent on half of my head. Still waiting on the official results from the Dr. I've always thought in the last several years there was a blood circulation problem in my brain. if i sleep on my right side i feel groggy and very out of it when i wake up in the morning. and a few episodes of vertigo and running into the wall after awakening that was unexplained a few years ago. i'm now waiting to get in with a neuro ophthalmologist to see about a optic nerve sheath fenestration surgery.

on another note, that diamox or Acetazolamide I take makes me real tired. combined with my winter bipolar tiredness and lack of stimulation instead of taking 90min naps it's more like 3 hour naps 2-3 times a day. i sleep almost all day for the last 2-3 months on most days. I feel like there's nothing left to do with my life. I have everything i could ask for and lots of good christmas and birthday presents. 2 cats and 2 cockatiels and 2 budgies. lots of stuff going for me. but i feel like i'm stuck in a jail cell or something. The first half the year was the best in a long time but the last part from september onto now feels like my life is over.

I think the medicine is part of the problem. i finally got back on a bipolar med. Latuda.

anyone take diamox and or get as tired as I"m describing? at christmas i couldn't even hold my eyes all the way open for the pictures. i looked drugged.

sorry for the long post. I needed to get it updated and am at my most productive moment.