I am writing this review because it was very difficult for me to determine that I was having side effects from Buspirone until much later than it should have. I started taking it 4 months ago at 7.5mg, 2 times a day. Sometime about 1-4 weeks after starting it, I started having severe fatigue "attacks" that caused intense eye pains, vision problems, and sometimes nausea. I was not aware that it could have been buspirone because I hadnt noticed obvious side effects immediately after I started. Luckily I keep a log of every drug, every symptom, and even every food I have each day and note the time of these things. For 3 months straight I had these attacks, most of the time it would occurr every day, with some relief every so often, but I have several medical issues, and am in the process of working through a neurologist for an issue, which I suspected must be the cause (whatever is going on with me neurologically).
However, the neurologist takes months to see for my followup so I continued searching for reasons and ways to fix my problems in the meantime. I tried diet changes, but to no avail. Went to urgent care several times, even the ER once, and my GP, all with no clues that led to any answers.
Then 2 weeks ago I realized that my fatigue attacks would happen often around 1-2 hours after waking up. I thought originally it may have had to do with eating for that reason, because I had no suspicion of this drug causing it, but regardless of my diet or whether I ate it would still happen. Then I thought about it and realized I take my medication generally a bit after waking up every day.
After scanning through the last 4 months of my medical diary, I saw the pattern emerge. I would take buspirone, and then within 1-2 hours I would either be asleep or have this fatigue attack, and would take ibuprofen (which seemed for some reason to relieve or prevent these attacks). I dont know why ibuprofen helped, but it does indicate that inflammation may be happening when my body absorbs buspirone.
I also noticed when I was at a GP having a severe anxiety situation/panic attack causing uncontrollable shivering/tremors, freezing cold, and pounding heart, along with additional anxiety happening more and more frequently.
So I stopped buspar. Around 24 hours after, I began having anxiety issues so I took a half a dose. That was my last dose, and since I have not had the fatigue attack/eye pain issue again. It has been about a week and a half now without the issues arising, and my anxiety is even better than it had been on buspirone.
If you are having mysterious issues and they track with any of the listed buspar side effected, consider an alternative to save yourself a lot of distress.Read More Read Less