Terbinafine Loss of taste

Also, Jonathon and to everyone else who has suffered after taking Terbinafine, another side effect for me from it was memory loss. That was bad in the first few weeks, really bad, but thankfully I have forgotten I had that - lol unless I still have it! But I would literally feel as though I had a blank space in my forehead. I could not think of whatever I had just been doing. I could remember things from the past but not immediate things, so it was affecting the frontal lobes like dementia does. That part of the side effect was frightening. I thought I was getting dementia speedily, and I did not asscociate the taste loss with the drug at the time, nor the memory loss. I thought the taste loss was due to a mouth ulcer and it wasn't until I had loss of taste for 2 weeks and tried everything to taste anything that I re read the leaflet for Terbinafine. Oddly, it had been my birthday (now 10 weeks ago) when I started the drug and I had read the leaflet and told my husband that i did not like the sound of the side effects, and wouldn't take it and he reminded me 'you are always doing that, getting medication and then reading the leaflet and not taking it. The doctor knows better than you do, just take the stuff!' so i did. I wish I hadn't. When I told my doctor of this conversation he said 'we doctors don't always know best but I have prescribed terbinafine to hundreds of people and you are the first to have suffered from it.' I see that the loss of taste side effect happens to 1 in 100 people, so that could be why my doctor only encountered me, and we here are all the ones in a hundred that had the misfortune to have suffered from taking Terbinafine. I wish we could sue the company for compensation. Its not just the experience its all the rest that goes with it, depression, suicidal thoughts (not me but some people have had) weight loss/gain, feelings of going bonkers, isolation and fear until finding a forum like this one that helps people to talk to others that know what the side effects feel like. Terbinafine and anything containing limisil should be struck off the medication market. In the first few weeks of not knowing one goes online to look up loss of taste and a whole host of terrifying suggestions appear, like stroke and diabetes and one could literally begin a course of treatment for the wrong thing. Terbinafine side effects can mask for many other things. The leaflet just says 1 in 100 people have reported taste disturbances. Possibly the other 99 people have not yet connected their loss of taste to the taking of this drug.

See my comment below regarding using doTERRA pure essential edible peppermind oil for loss of taste.

Jonathan, I just stopped taking terbinafine (Lamisil) 5 days ago due to loss of taste.  I was in my 5th week from starting the medication.  I have had toe nail fungus on my right foot for over 10 years.  Previous Drs would not even discuss Lamisil due to the possible side effects on the liver and my 2 pregnancies.  Finally, at the age of 42, the dr said I could try Lamisil.  Unfortunately I have stopped taking it and will just have to deal with the gross thick toe nails.  I also lost the salty and sweet tastes almost completely.  Everything tastes bland.  The sweets and ice cream that I usually crave taste terrible.  I agree with others that even water has a slimy, almost snotty taste.  It is like a slimy coating on your tongue and mouth.  I'm so happy I found this discussion group and hope I regain my taste within a few months.  One question, was anyone else taking other prescription meds while taking Lamisil?  I am taking a low dose cholesterol med and Metformin.  

Hi Jonathan.  Thank you so much for your post.  I wish I'd seen it earlier.

I too have the same problem. I lost my sense of taste about 10 days ago after taking Terbinafine for 10 weeks of a 12 week course. Unfortunately it took 7 days before I stopped taking the drug because I thought the loss of taste could have been caused by a slight cold (although this had never happened to me before).  I went to the doctor and he said he thought it was probably a virus, but suggested I should probably should stop taking terbinafine as a precaution.

Like the rest of people my loss of taste is a little hard to describe.  I have a persistent salty taste in my mouth, and water tastes like a mixture of salt and soap.  It sounds trivial, but one big issue for me is I normally love bread, but bread in particular tastes awful. 

I'm grateful for your post because it gives me hope that my taste will return.  I was starting to worry that it would be permanent, and the quality of life would be significantly impaired.

Best wishes

Rob

It is now coming up for16 weeks of taste loss, and just today I very, very slightly tasted some food. However, unbeknown to me till recently I have had double trouble. The mandibular ridge had been poking above my lower gum and has are a how in the side of my tongue and this leads to taste disturbance. I have to have surgery on Jan 27th 2015 to correct matters but this procedure carries a 50\50% risk of nerve damage and tongue paralysis that will be permanent but without surgery the risk within 3 years is inevitable as the sharp and jagged ridge rubs an even bigger hole in the side of my tongue. So

I am staying positive about the surgery as expertise of the oral surgeon, but even so the downside is possible taste loss for up to a year even if the surgery is successful. Oh well, I'm kinda used to it now.

That was put a hole in the side of my tongue. I am using a hudl tablet that predicts what I am about to write and if I do not notice before sending the post can come out very weird indeed. Earlier I sent to type let me and it converted it to let Mary Lou. Fortunately I saw it before posting!

In October of 2014, I noticed a small dark spot on a nail of my left foot, so, being Diabetic and watchful of my feet, I asked my doctor about it. He said it was a nail fungus and put me on Lamisil/Terbinafine. He had me take this for Eight Months Straight, all the while never mentioning anything about side effects like damage to the Liver, etc.

  At any rate, I Did take it for 8 months and, aside from not noticing any dramatic improvement to the nail, I Did note that suddenly my sense of taste completely disappeared about 6 weeks ago. I ascribed it to diabetic neuropathy and resigned myself that this was just how it was going to be for the rest of my life and thought nothing further on it until I began looking into complaints about Terbinafine and was startled to read that Many patients who take this have had the same effect. In My case, however, my taste seems to have come back, perhaps 50%, anyway in spite of my continuing on the medication.

Last week my 8th month of the prescription finally ran out and I decided to no longer refill it and so have not taken any of it since. I have noticed daily headaches and intermittent stomach upsets and diarrhea but nothing else in the way of withdrawal symptoms-So Far. Needless to say, I am quite disturbed by my doctor not telling me of any of these things and also for keeping me on a medication that, from reading up on it, seems to be only taken for up to 12 weeks maximum and is dangerous to go longer.

   My advice to people would be, that No Matter What medication you are given, Look Up all information that you can find online about it and decide accordingly. Doctors will not generally tell people all that they need to know. They Should, but then again, it's how they make their money...Bottom Line being-keep yourself informed and do Not depend on your doctor. Know what you are taking and what it could or might do to you. Myself, I have high hopes that the rest of my taste will return and maybe, finally, I'll be rid of this nasty salty/chemical taste that seems to be always present in my mouth. Hopefully, I will not have any Liver troubles, but as of yet, nothing has manifested itself. If I am lucky, it may never do so.