Well....I am not sure how I discovered this newsgroup, I think I typed "joint pain" into a search engine and it brought me here. It is sad to find so many people affected in this way, but you cannot believe how happy I am to find this group. I thought I was going crazy, or at least aging very fast! 

I took Cipro for 28 days for an alleged prostatitis in July 1998.

Since then I have had many of the symptoms described here: muscle twitching, pains, tingling, visual disturbances, nausea, confusion, deep depression and anxiety, smelling smoke, to name a few. 

Not until I read some of the stories here did I make a connection between Cipro and the reactions. What a relief ! I thought I had MS or something else. My guess is that there must be many people affected who do not know they have an ADR. 

Fortunately, most of the problems have gone. The first reaction was depression and anxiety. I had never experienced these before and they were probably the worst. The depression lifted after the first 12 months and the anxiety lasted until recently. About a month ago the anxiety seemed to disappear suddenly and now I feel my old self again. 

The only problem now is the joint pains in the knees, elbows and particularly the fingers. They come and go, but oddly, since the anxiety went, the finger joint pains have got worse. Now they are more painful than at any time before. However, if I had my choice of joint pains or anxiety, I much prefer the joint pains! 

Thanks to all who have posted here. Now that I know this is an ADR I feel so much relief. I guess I should feel some anger too, but I don't. Maybe that will come later.