Hi - I just wanted to thank you for having the courage to post your story. I have always battled with depression, and yet going on Plaquenil made it far worse, and made me very suicidal and unstable - emotionally I felt out of control whereas I had always felt fairly level. I think it (and many of the other DMARDs prescribed for these diseases - I have Sjogren's syndrome) is a far more dangerous drug than the doctors understand, and as patients it is up to us to spread the word on these side effects. I applaud you for doing this to help other people.

Best wishes,
Jane

I just took myself off Plaquenil yesterday. About a month into the medication I became grumpy, anxious and confused. I began to cry for no reason and felt hopeless. I thought it was because of my new diagnosis of SLE, I now realize it was the medication. I wish I would have known it has this type of side effect.

KWC, I am glad that I was able to help you and Jane on this forum. You will continue to feel better and better the longer you are off Plaquenil. Since this experience, I have only used over the counter arthritis medication and I have been doing fine. Plaquenil is an extremely strong drug, it should be used as a last resort to other medications. I wish you the best ~

Hi Jane,
I did not get your response until now. What really concerned me when this happened, was how many people may be suffering the same side effects as we did, and not realize it is stemming from the medications we are on. We just have to keep spreading the word on this and hope that it will help others. I am glad my post helped you, I wish you the best ~

hello friends,

thank you for this post, i have a histoyof severe depression even going so far as to have electro shock therapy, i have had RA for two years ago and was started on 10 mg of methotrexate a week which i inject,,, about 2 months into it 400 mg of plaquenil was added, this was about 5 months ago, today i almost took my own life, i swallowed 40 plaquenil tablets and realized what i had done and managed (thank the lord) to bring most of them up with a litre of milk and sticking my finger down my throat,,, i know its the plaquenil, i even mentioned the depression to my doctor and told her i thought it was the plaquinil but she said i should continue to take it as i would have a RA flare, the thing is, i have become a raving lunatic, i have literally gone mad and i cant help myself,,, is this worth it,,, do doctors really know what they are doing when they prescribe this drug without knowing if there is a history of depression,
to all those who might have to start this drug, be careful if you have ever had any form of depression, severe or mild, as this could be the killer,

best wishes to all of you suffers out there.

I have scleroderma and they had prescribed me 3 years ago now to be on this which I have to control my pain and swelling....now they have just immediately pulled me off as they feel it is affecting my eyes, which if I stay on the plaquenil they say I could go blind... so what are we to do, be blind or depressed like some of you or do we all just get crippled up? what a choice...there has to be something else out there.