Does Lexapro Cause or Help With Extreme Fatigue?
Lexapro is primarily used to treat mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. In such, for some individuals, it showed efficiency in reducing the symptoms of fatigue, whereas in others it only promoted it. Always consult with a healthcare professional for personalized advice.
What Can Be Defined As Extreme Fatigue?
Extreme fatigue is a condition in which the individual experiences a significant decrease in physical and mental activity efficiency. Typically, extreme fatigue is caused by excessive mental or physical activities, diseases or syndromes. It is also often accompanied by a huge amount of discomfort, a desire to rest and reduced motivation [1, 2, 3]. Read on whether fatigue can be caused by high cholesterol.
Extreme fatigue manifests as a persistent feeling of tiredness at rest, lack of endurance, lack of energy and easy exhaustion with activity or a loss of vigour [4]. In addition, it can also be described as a failure to maintain the required or expected force, with the force of a voluntary contraction being graded according to both the tension generated in each muscle fibre and the number of fibres recruited [5]. This is closely related to CNS fatigue.
In severe cases, some people who suffer from extreme fatigue may experience continuous severe fatigue throughout the day. In turn, this results in flattened diurnal cycles or stable exhaustion, which is not common in healthy individuals [6]. In particular, this can be observed in intense activities, where ATP consumption exceeds its production and leads to changes in intracellular metabolites [7].
However, extreme fatigue can be also an underlying symptom of other conditions. For instance, in children, it may be a symptom of anaemia, malabsorption syndrome and depression [8]. It is also a symptom frequently complained about by older people, although its understanding is often limited due to its subjectivity and the lack of a gold standard for its assessment [9].
What Is The Cause Of Extreme Fatigue?
Extreme fatigue can have numerous causes. These can vary from physical and mental. However, keep in mind that fatigue or extreme fatigue is not a disease itself, but rather a symptom which can be associated with medical conditions, treatments or even personal habits [10].
For instance, a cause of extreme fatigue can be physical exertion. It can be, that severe exertion, limited caloric intake and sleep deprivation. This can be observed especially in hgh-stress environments such as military combat training [2]. In addition, overtraining, undertraining or physical injury can also lead to extreme fatigue [11]. Heat stress can also cause fatigue by increasing core body temperature [12].
Medical conditions which can lead to extreme fatigue include anaemia, malabsorption syndrome or depression [8]. Further, diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome and anxiety can also lead to extreme fatigue [13, 14, 15]. Apart from medical conditions, it often can be that your medication or treatment can contribute to fatigue. For instance, antidepressants, antihistamines and drugs for nausea and pain, chemotherapy and radiation [10] can all take part in eliciting fatigue.
Nonetheless, lifestyle factors such as lack of sleep, being overweight or obese, periods and emotional stress can also contribute to extreme fatigue. In addition, regular use of alcohol or illicit drugs, abnormal consumption of caffeine and insufficient nutrition as well [14].
What Is Lexapro?
Lexapro is a prescription medication, which belongs to the group of drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) [16, 17, 18]. The drug is also known as escitalopram and is used for certain types of depression and anxiety [16, 17]. In particular, it is prescribed for people who have depression or generalized anxiety disorder [17].
Lexapro works by increasing the amount of serotonin, which is a molecule that can regulate your mood [17, 18]. Typically it is available as an oral tablet or as an oral liquid solution [18].
Does Lexapro Cause or Help Extreme Fatigue?
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As fatigue is a common symptom that can be observed in patients with depression and anxiety. In fact, around 90% of the patients with major depressive disorder reported fatigue [20].
Lexapro has been shown to help with reducing the symptoms of depression as well as fatigue [19]. However, it's important to note that while Lexapro can help manage fatigue related to these conditions, it may not directly target fatigue as a standalone symptom.
Other studies have suggested that some antidepressants may be useful in fighting against fatigue-related symptoms in depression, such as levomilnacipran [21, 22]. However, while in some patients antidepressants can help to reduce fatigue, they can also cause fatigue as a side effect in others [23]. Therefore, the effect of Lexapro on fatigue can vary from person to person.
In conclusion, while Lexapro can help manage fatigue related to depression and anxiety, its effectiveness in treating fatigue as a standalone symptom is not well-established. If you're experiencing extreme fatigue, it's important to discuss this with your healthcare provider to determine the best treatment approach for you.