These symptoms can contribute to a patient feeling and acting differently. Steroids can often be used to offset these symptoms. Chemotherapy seems to have less direct effect on personality, ability to think, or ability to perform. However, the side effects of chemotherapy, such as nausea and vomiting, hair loss, or lowered blood counts, can cause changes in one s energy level, ability to socialize, self-confidence and outlook on life. Many of the symptoms that patients treated with monoclonal antibodies experience are related more to the side effects of the therapy than the direct effect on the brain.
Side effects are similar to chemotherapy with fatigue and loss of appetite being common.
If you experience these symptoms, please speak with your healthcare provider about the possibility of decreasing the dose or of using a hypnotic or anti-psychotic medication to help with the symptoms. Anti-convulsants in doses too high or too low can cause unwanted side effects. This is why your doctor periodically checks your blood level of anti-convulsants. They also can react with some chemotherapies, such as procarbazine and BCNU, and cause difficulty with gait, slurring of speech, sleepiness, depression, confusion and visual problems, including double vision. Less common, but also possible, are agitation, aggression, insomnia, and psychosis.