Pulmonary Fibrosis

[georgi]

I Just want others to know that Pulmonary Fibrosis can be caused by the medications you may be taking. I was doing fine in life, then slowly I was having a hard time breathing. It kept getting worse. My chest x-ray was awful. The doctors told me I had Pulmonary Fibrosis. My out look was grim. I myself was trying to figure out what had gone wrong in my life to cause this. The only thing that was new was that I had started on Prozac about 4 months earlier. I quite taking it and I started getting better. The doctors were amazed. Tho rare, it [certian medications]can cause this. My x-rays were normal. Since that time, my pulmonary doctor has found another of his patients with the same thing. This might help someone out there.
georgi

[Deda]

Hi Georgi--

Lucky for you you were able to find the cause of your fibrosis. I'm happy to hear that you are doing well now. I had read once that Zoloft, (which is an SSRI like Prozac) is the one medicine that causes Pulmonary Fibrosis more than any other drug. (can't remember where I saw that, but I did read that). I couldn't believe it! I was on Zoloft for 6 years, (not knowing this), and fortunately nothing happened! My mother and brother both died of Idiopathic PF, and there is a familial type, so I do have to watch out for this.
I just don't understand how an anti depressant, that supposedly works at the brain level could cause a lung disease, but I will always steer clear of these drugs in the future. I hope your health continues to remain stable.

Good luck
DEDA

[lucky charms]

Do you think Xanax could trigger pulmonary fibrosis?

[Deda]

likeme--I don't think so. Xanex is an anti anxiety drug, not an anti depressant. I use Xanex from time to time without fear of it causing PF. I don't exactly think it's common to get PF from anti depressants either, just that there have been some cases like Georgi (above), but with my family history of it, I'm not about to take a chance.

[wrin]

There are lots of drugs that may or may not cause pulmonary fibrosis in many people. One of the more commonly-known offenders is bleomycin, which is a chemotherapy drug.

People taking drugs that are known to cause fibrosis have pulmonary function tests done, sometimes every week, since it can erupt that fast.

Most of the time, pulmonary fibrosis is idiopathic, which means we're idiots about the pathology. We don't know whta caused it. In situations like this it's sometimes worth it to investigate what kinds of drugs you are on but sometimes it just happens for no reason and blaming Tylenol or whatever you happened to be taking at the time is not going to help.