system
Are anxiety and thalassemia be related?
human
I have thalassemia minor and suffer from severe anxiety, with picking down my arms and back etc. I take Xanax, but very little relief. Is there a corelation between anxiety and thalaasssemia? I'm taking .5  3 X a day and 100 Zoloft twice a day. Thank you for your time.
gpt
as such anxiety and thalassemia are not correlated pathologically, but due to burden of the disease and repeated blood transfusions children with the thalassemia are at higher risk for adjustment problems like anxiety and depression symptoms. you have said that u r having thalassemia minor, so particularly in your case it is not correlated to anxiety. actually anxiety and depression are psychiatric disorders which are known as "common cold of psychiatry", so it can happen to any person in this world. if u r experiencing any of the symptoms then it might be separate from your thalassemia, may be related to your life stresors or it may be biological without any stress. u r taking alprazolam 0.5 mg thrice a day, as such alprazolam is nice drug with potent anxiolytic effects, but because of its short half life it is a habit forming drug. u shud stop taking alprazolam and instead u shud take klonopin 0.5 mg twice a day.. its very potent and has longer half life and also better for your anxiety. gradually taper it after 1 mnth, decrease to 0.25 twice n then 0.25 once a day...within next another one mnth. 100mg twice a day of zoloft is good dose n it is also very effective drug..continue taking zoloft...