Could Taking ADHD Medication Cylert Have Made Me Depressed?

Reader’s Question

Thanks so much for your site. I have what may seem to be a strange question for you. Can the medication Cylert cause emotional problems? I took it a long time ago, and about the same time I started taking it I started having problems. I felt like crying most of the time and just generally felt very weird. I’d feel very shaky at times and like I was about to fall apart. These problems came on gradually. It would happen out of the blue for a day or two, then go away. After a while they became a lot more frequent. I especially felt weird when I was around people. I became more withdrawn.

Despite this I didn’t have the feelings of sadness and worthlessness associated with depression. I stopped taking Cylert quite a while ago, but the problems still persist. I now take an antidepressant which helps a little. I’m wondering if Cylert altered my brain chemistry or if the problems are due to something else.

Incidentally, I had very hypercritical parents and a mother who was at times emotionally abusive when I was a teenager. It could be a stressful environment. Unfortunately, I was living in that same hypercritical environment temporarily when the emotional problems started occurring. I have heard that emotionally abusive parenting can cause depression in young adulthood even if the abuse happened a long time ago. I was 25 when the problems started.

Psychologist’s Reply

Cylert was a medication primarily used in the U.S. to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It was eventually removed from the market due to the number of reports of liver damage or liver failure associated with its use.

Some persons taking Cylert reported symptoms associated with neurological side effects, but they typically were not similar to those you describe, and the symptoms associated with liver damage or failure have their own distinct character.

An interesting possibility to at least consider is that sometimes features of depression, especially an atypical depression, can mimic some of the symptoms of ADHD, especially the symptoms of confusion and agitation. So, sometimes individuals who are in the early stages of a depression might not be fully or accurately diagnosed. To further complicate matters, sometimes individuals whose depression is characterized by lethargy, periods of agitation, and difficulty concentrating, might actually appear to improve when placed on a stimulant drug primarily designed to treat ADHD, thus further obscuring the true underlying problem. Sometimes, later it becomes more evident that the person’s real problems stemmed from a depression as opposed to deficiency of attention-sustaining ability. Of course, the treatment for that is antidepressant therapy, and because individuals vary in their symptom presentation, sometimes it takes a while to find the optimum medication and/or combination of medication and other therapies to help get the person back to normal.

Naturally, it’s impossible to make an accurate assessment of your situation remotely, but perhaps the information I’ve given here might help you better sort out what might have been the case for you.

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