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Side effects Imatinib / depression

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Hello everyone!

I noticed the first week taking Imatinib that I was becoming very listless. My motivation to do anything was gone. As time has gone on, somewhere around the two month mark, I started getting anxiety as well. I'm now very depressed and the anxiety is frecvent. This is not due to the diagnosis, I've had a tough life and have other chronical illnesses, so cml does not cause me much discomfort as such. I'm wondering if anyone else has had these experiences with Imatinib and if it helped to change to another drug? 

Hi Sandra,

I'm sorry to hear you are having troubles. A cancer diagnosis is a real hammer-blow and it's totally understandable you are feeling anxious and depressed.

I know you say that this isn't due to the diagnosis, but I can't help but feel it could be a pretty big contributor. Almost all patients who have CML go through some sort of anxiety or depressive episode when diagnosed. It's a lot to take in. It can be overwhelming and that can manifest itself physically too.

I am not aware of any causal link between imatinib and anxiety or depression - but you will find that a number of people who take it do have those symptoms, but perhaps not directly related to the actual mechanics of the drug itself.

Looking back to the year or so after I was diagnosed, it's very clear to me my mental health was not as good as it should be, or normally is. It took me a while to come to terms with my diagnosis, both physically and mentally. I think once the disease was under control in a medical sense, that was the point that I started to become more comfortable with CML and started to return to my normal self. It took me a long time before I'd go through the day without being anxious about it.

David.

Thank you for your reply David. 

I see what you're saying!  I should probably explain why I don't think it's the diagnosis. I'm not saying this out of some sort of arrogance, "0h well, cml doesn't affect me"!  I'm autistic and my brain works a bit differently to most. I'm very pragmatic and unsentimental when it comes to myself. I've considered the possibility but no, the cml doesn't bother me, it honestly doesn't. I'm not completely disregarding the idea that it might have been the straw that broke the camel's back though! I've considered other things in my life as a possible cause, sleeping poorly or so on but there is not much going on there.  Mostly my thinking it's the Imatinib, is because I noticed a marked difference in my mood starting the Imatinib. I was on chemotherapy for two weeks before the Imatinib and felt fine on those.  Depression is listed as one of the side effect to Imatinib so it's not unheard of. 

Sandra - Wise words from David.  Certainly, there are multifactorial elements for depression and anxiety, not the least of which is unprocessed reaction to the diagnosis and its lifelong ramifications.  But having said that, unequivocally, I got major severe depression with imatinib.  I began to improve with (again, multi-factors) seeing a therapist (whose very first line of attack was the sleeping problem), changing oncologists to a CML expert, and switching to dasatinib.  I finally felt well and that in turn boosted my mood and confidence.  Depression is listed as a side effect with imatinib, albeit very rare (I believe it's reported at < 1%).

Thank you for your answer!

I understand why you would think I haven't processed this. Trust me I have and I'm fine with it. The CML diagnosis is not the cause of my depression and anxiety. I think your plan of attack seems like a really good one. I will look into it!

Sandra,

One last thing. When you stop taking imatinib, it takes about 5-7 days to “wash out” of your system (give or take). So if imatinib is causing you these problems, you’d hope things would start to improve at around this time, though of course it might not be quite as simple as that in the case of depression and anxiety when the recovery period may be a bit longer. 

David.

Thank you! I will keep that in mind!

See, even if it's not the drugs then changing the drugs would still help due to the placebo effect. I'm guessing I must seem very strange to you :P  I'm currently waiting for the latest bone marrow test, the doctor won't do anything before that. Meanwhile I figured I'd keep a journal of my symptoms to see if there are any other correlations to my depression and anxiety.