What Causes Severe Anxiety, Mild Fever And Increased Heart Rate While On Lexapro?

Posted on Wed, 6 Jan 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Wed, 6 Jan 2016 Answered on

Tue, 2 Feb 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : I have taken lexapro 10 mg for about 4 months. At first i felt better, first 2 to 4 weeks. Now I have so much anxiety I can hardly sit still. I wake up almost every night with an increased heart rate and mild fever. Also my arms and hands are going numb in my sleep. Additionally I have had muscle cramping and kinked neck. It is very difficult to focus and things seem very unreal. My question is could I be having side effects or would it be more likely that I am creating this? ( I should also mention that I have a yeast infection exhibited by thrush on my tongue that I have changed my diet to address) Any suggestions or thought?

Answered by Dr. Dr. Chintan Solanki (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
no side effects

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

Thanks for writing to us. I can understand your concern.

Lexapro after 1 month cannot cause such side effects. Rather it helps in such symptoms.

From your history it seems that it is your anxiety problem likely and there is need of increasing the dose of lexapro.

History of fever with increased heart rate is needed to be examined also for any viral infection (flu).

Treatment of yeast infection is needed. This may be exaggerating your symptoms of anxiety.

I also recommend investigating for thyroid and vitamin B12 level.

For a while adding some anti-anxiety drug like clonazepam or lorazepam would be helpful.

Please discuss suggestions with your doctor.

Hope I have answered your query, I will be happy to help further.
Regards,
Dr.Chintan Solanki.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar