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by okusername 2497 days ago
5-htp is associated with increased anxiety / panic attacks. Found out after I got one. (Racing heart, palpitations out of nowhere, spent a night in hospital doing bunch of heart tests.) There is very little research on it, because it's not patented, but try pubmed etc. iirc it increases anxiety especially in the first days, weeks then it levels out.
2 comments

For me it was palpitations from 5-HTP. Heart skips a beat, then sudden extreme vertigo and anxiety skyrockets. This happened several times a day.

And magnesium caused a dull, ever-present pressure/ache in the left side of my chest that went mostly away (except when I'm very anxious) after I stopped taking it.

That's interesting. I've actually found that it, coupled with other nootropics, reduces my anxiety by quite a lot. I've been taking it for a couple months and haven't had any negative side effects. I used to get "racing heart", palpitations, HBP, and other symptoms when I'm stressed (which now I'm attributing to the general bucket of "anxiety"), and these supplements really help calm my nerves throughout the day and I haven't had many symptoms since.