SanDiegoMom Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 I am just wondering if anyone who has used Buspar has noticed an increase in facial tics. My son already had some, and i feel like they got worse when we started a low dose of Buspar last week. He is at 5 mg per day (split into two) and supposed to go to 10 next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 Has he ever been diagnosed with Tourettes? I know diddley about tourettes, so I'm just asking. Buspar is an agonist for a bunch of things. Have you googled yet to see if it is a known interaction? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 (edited) That's a very low dose btw. Is he getting any changes in his anxiety or whatever he's taking it for? It may be the dose is so low that it's just coincidence. Reddit is showing a thread where a few people had tics as a side effect. Others found their tourettes tics decreased. You should definitely talk with your doctor and make sure whether you should be continuing. Buspar has a very short half life. If you take it only say in the morning, do you notice any pattern to the timing of the tics? (like more when the medication is higher and less as it fades out) If you have genetics, check out NBPF3 RS4654748. I got rid of half my anxiety and off buspar just by treating the effects of that one gene. (Uncommon explanation but worth a try.) Edited March 30, 2021 by PeterPan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SanDiegoMom Posted March 30, 2021 Author Share Posted March 30, 2021 (edited) We are doing genetics next month so I will ask about any mutations related to anxiety. It seemed to appear when it was wearing off -- so I gave it in the morning and it was around 6 pm. But he has only been on it for like 5 days. It is supposed to take a few weeks for it to really start working from what the doctor told me. He goes up to the 10 mg on Friday. He has had increasing tics before the meds -- his head would bob down in a jerky fashion. He's had a lot of eye blinking recently (which could be allergies, he is allergic to A LOT). And now it was even more -- like a combination of head and eye twitch. I have never seen a seizure before but it made me think of it. But it was only when he was thinking REALLY hard -- we were playing Dungeons and Dragons and he was the dungeon master so he was trying to basically improv off the page he was reading. ) Plus my oldest was very adhd so it was stressing him out -- she was very impulsive while playing and it seemed to get worse with that. When he is calm it doesn't seem to happen as much. He says his neck and shoulders are constantly sore (gaming and sitting all the time) but we all really have sore shoulders -- it makes us stretch a lot and roll our necks, but not to head bob in a consistent jerky fashion. It freaked me out enough I had to leave for a minute to calm down, but he had no idea, other than he was blinking a lot. His older sister blinked a lot as well in high school and does so less. *I have emailed the doctor to ask as well, but I figured I would get something quicker here! Will cross post on the chat board too. Edited March 30, 2021 by SanDiegoMom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 The half life of a 10-40 mg dose of buspar is only 2-3 hours. So at 12-18 hours a 10mg dose would, in theory, be gone from his system. (6X half life) So if the tics are occurring at 10 hours with such a miniscule dose, well I guess see what the doc says. He obviously thinks your ds is very sensitive or he wouldn't be starting so low. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SanDiegoMom Posted March 30, 2021 Author Share Posted March 30, 2021 32 minutes ago, PeterPan said: The half life of a 10-40 mg dose of buspar is only 2-3 hours. So at 12-18 hours a 10mg dose would, in theory, be gone from his system. (6X half life) So if the tics are occurring at 10 hours with such a miniscule dose, well I guess see what the doc says. He obviously thinks your ds is very sensitive or he wouldn't be starting so low. I think it's more that she didn't quite believe me about the anxiety -- apparently she was pretty impressed with him and formed an opinion before we talked to her. I think she decided to do something low just to make us happy. I told her that while he doesn't have constant anxiety, he has definite waves of anxiety where he will be ok for a month to three months (fooling us that he no longer has anxiety and is cured yay) and then it will be really bad again. And this has been happening for years. And it's usually around anything related to transition or change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 Does he verbalize when his anxiety is going up/down like this? I would be more concerned about saying it's cyclic than saying it's constant and worse situationally. If you want a laugh, the anxiety med was really pivotal in me finally *feeling* the anxiety. It gave me the ability to turn on/off the symptoms, and suddenly stuff I had lived with all the time, things I just assumed were normal, had a name=anxiety. It changed the bar on how I could feel. It's also why I can self advocate and say the treatment I'm doing now for that gene treats certain symptoms. So I really liked buspar for that opportunity to turn it on/off and get more *awareness* of my symptoms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SanDiegoMom Posted March 30, 2021 Author Share Posted March 30, 2021 Well, today he said for the first time that his heart was racing and wondering if it was anxiety -- he was already starting to feel anxious and then he leaned forward at the table on his hand and was like hey, my heart's racing. weird. He has been able to tell these last few months that he is feeling anxious, and he is starting to get better about it. But he also doesn't really know any other feelings, it seems. Just anxious and not anxious! And I DO have the interoception workbook and I keep meaning to use it! AAh. It's been an uptick of all sorts of things -- school going in person (so first time on a school campus since 2nd grade!) and his math and science classes have gotten HARD. So I've been trying to decrease demands in other areas. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 I can't remember the gene name and need to research it further, but I *think* maybe for me (and this is just my hack looking into things) the heart racing part of the anxiety actually a 2nd kind and due to a different gene. So I have this constant overall level of anxiety from one gene issue and the heart racing/agitation from a different gene. I've gotten the one better but haven't figured out the other. But if that's what is happening and it's situational, not all the time, he needs to be advocating about that, kwim? And really, it's ok to try an all the time med like Buspar and see what happens. If it gets too high, he'll know. It will give him the chance to tease apart these feelings, like what was a constant low level of anxiety eating at him (if that's happening) and what is situational (heart racing). And yes, that's really great that he's noticing his heart!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 10 minutes ago, SanDiegoMom said: So I've been trying to decrease demands in other areas. Sounds like a project for summer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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