A lot of people are familiar with serotonin, but not nearly as many people are aware that there’s a condition called serotonin syndrome that’s diagnosed at a rate of a few thousand people every year – and could affect you with a range of symptoms that might be related to the medication you take.
Serotonin syndrome can be treated with a combination of the right medication and immediate treatment and it’s usually easy to diagnose due to the range of medications that can trigger the condition– but also just as easy to mistake for other health conditions. Mention all of your symptoms to your doctor if you want to make their job of diagnosing the right condition easier, and make sure they know any medications you have started or stopped taking recently.
At the first signs of symptoms, signs or family history, make an appointment with your doctor and take note of as many symptoms as you can to report back to your doctor about.
Here are 14 warning serotonin syndrome symptoms that you should know about.
1. A Spike in Temperature
The body creates a fever when it spots any signs of bacteria, viruses or other intruders that might enter the body. The body can also sometimes create a fever as the immune system’s response to a variety of different factors that it might imagine as being dangerous even when it’s actually just the body’s own cells.
Sometimes serotonin syndrome can throw the entire body into haywire, and one of the first ways in which this manifests is with a sudden spike in temperature to far above what’s normal.
Any signs of an uncontrollable fever that doesn’t subside with conventional paracetamol treatment is enough to mean you might need an emergency room visit. Untreated fevers can put too much strain on the organs and heart, leading to an increased risk of associated issues like heart failure or heart attacks.
Remember to take special care in the elderly and children who might not be able to voice their symptoms.
