Citalopram

[JustOneMore]

Who's on or been on this stuff?

I'm starting it tomorrow.

20mg for the 1st week, then 40mg onwards.

Any side effects i should know about?

[Kalini]

Hi Justonemore

I'm Kalini -I'm new to this site but I've been hanging around the other on and off for a while, but there's noone there anymore so I've migrated here.

I was on Citalopram for about 3 months, it was the first AntiD I tried and it made me more perky but a couple of months ago I switched to Fluoxetine. This was because of side effects, mainly I was really tired all the time which was great at weekends cos I was sleeping like a baby for 18hrs at a time (I'm an insomniac so it was really novel sensation) but then I ended up struggling to wake every morning in the week and wasn't feeling refreshed at all. Other effects were I had no short term memory (I couldn't rem why I'd gone upstairs, what I'd just done etc), that was kinda funny but it really interfered with my work (i'm a scientist and it can be a bit dangerous not doing things in the right order!!). The other thing I didn't like was that even half a glass of wine made me hot and have huge headaches instantly! But Citalopram did make me feel much better too (within myself), I would have stuck with it if there was no alternative available but instead I trusted my doc when she said that I could have all that without the side effects on a different med - but I'm still waiting for the new one to kick in tho

Oh and at the start I had a whole bunch of other effects, I ticked most of them off from that info list you get with the packet! But nothing really lasted that long enough to be a pain. I had runs for a day, itchiness for a day, then I got a bit twitchy, then a wave of complete sadness for no reason (but like just for 10mins - doc said that's a weird one!) and other strange stuff, I had a numb face for a couple of hrs the first 2 times I took it, that was a very odd sensation. But that all calm down within 3 wks and then I felt tops! So much so that people who had no idea I was down let alone depressed kept telling me I looked alive and radiant!! The drowsiness and scattiness only happened when we upped the dose to 40 then 60mg.

I hope you get on well with it! From what I was told originally it has less side effects than most antiDs (maybe I just reacted badly!) and its good for anxiety and insomnia.

Good luck

Kalini

[stuart-g]

Who's on or been on this stuff?

I'm starting it tomorrow.

20mg for the 1st week, then 40mg onwards.

Any side effects i should know about?

[Miko]

Side effects will vary immensely and I really do mean immensely.

Some people get side effects that aren't mentioned in any literature. Arm yourself with the contact details of the Yellow Card people (run search) and be prepared to make them a report if a drug is stopping you working when you should be working. They won't give you any hassle!

Another thing is coming off it. Like most SSRIs one should spend a year tapering off very very gradually indeed. If there have been side effects they can last two months after the last dose.

A third thing is dosage. To my mind there isn't the slightest reason to think of increasing the dose before knowing what the effects are for the first few weeks.

Some people need to reduce their doses of some drugs not increase it.

And some people do extremely well on this drug, at various different dosages, very very well indeed.

Fourthly I hope your practitioner will be prepared to explore real alternatives with you should this prove unsuitable in about three weeks.

I hope you will receive a lot of different stories about this, in addition I advise you to run a search on this as the forum has been runnning for a couple of years and this topic has come up again and again, frequently.

Obviously it's neatest for everyone if you aren't affected by side effects but I don't see how most practitioners can be confident in predicting effects on most patients.

[stuart-g]

Hi there YES there is some thing U need to know, one of its side effects is lack of sex drive. Be warned in the words of Fred Wedlock..."It will take you all night to do what U used to do all night !"

There is another drug which is used for the same thing which is a new version but a bit stronger with less side effects, called Escitalopram.

I would say this is a better alternative but I am not qualified to give medical advice. ( I speak only through my own personal experience).

So if you are worried I would suggest a trip back to the G.P. and discuss any of your concerns with him.

Good luck ........Stuart-G B)

[chealsea]

Hi JustOneMore

I am on citalopram. I changed from fluoexetine afterabout 18months cos i found i was doing silly things with them. I think citalopram is working for me but eveeryone is different, When i first started antid's i only had 2 of the first lot they gave me and they made me really ill. Everyone takes differently to different meds. If you have any concerns of yours you should tell your gp.

Hope i was of some help

Take care

Chealsea

[Miko]

Kalini,

Perhaps your doctor should have stayed with you at 20mg.

Kalini and JOM,

This shows a pitfall about doctors having a hangup about a so-called "therapeutic" dose which is bound up in regulations. In reality it will be extremely variable from one patient to another.

The REAL therapeutic dose for some patients can be minute.

I told my psychiatrist I would like to try Risperdal at 0.1 mg or so (one-tenth of the common starting dose), but he told me I should do without, which I am also easy with, now that certain things in life are a bit more manageable. (Risperdal is not "classed" as an AD.)

[strat]

I can confirm that escitalopram has an effect on my sex drive. It was low anyway, but it's made things worse.

[mrs tree]

I am on citalopram...THe only real side effect i get is it lowers my labido but not too much obviously as i got preggers on it LOL

[Kalini]

Hi

Miko - Thanks for your comments. That's an interesting point you raise, I never thought of that. When I started to decrease the dose again to come of it, I initially felt much more lively (less drowsy) but then I crashed big. I thought that meant that 20mg wasn't enough, but maybe it was just the change in dose that did that and not the amount. I guess for now I'm best of sticking with the Fluoxetine and seeing how that works out, although maybe I'll ask the doc when I go for a sanity check up next wk.

All - I know what you mean about sex drive!! Are there any ADs that don't have that side effect? Then again its normally sex that's my downfall and self destruction process so maybe reduced urges are good for me!! Its frustrating though.

JOM - how are you getting on? Have you started them yet? Bare in mind the first couple of wks are normally the worse so try to stick with them even if you feel a bit

Hugs

Kalini

[JustOneMore]

I took one, then i managed to lose them out my pocket!!

Had to go back to the docs today to get more.

He only gave me a weeks supply.

He doesn't trust me lol

[tinkerbelle1989]

Hey Kalini,

Citalopram made me really agitated, in fact I was taken off it but I think that was more because I'm under 18. Good Luck with it!

x

[Kalini]

Hey JustOneMore

One word for you "D'oh!!"

I went really scatty on them for the first 2 wks days. I hope it passes for you and you can look back and laugh at being an airhead Different things work for different folks.

Take care and get a zipper pocket.

Kalini

Tinkerbelle - me too I was taken off them, but for being too sleepy and a worse memory than a goldfish- ahh 7 whole seconds, if only... So far I'm doing ok on new ones...well I'm in that 1st wk high of them just kicking in anyway I'm enjoying the clarity and fizzy feeling in my stomach...could I be happy??!! :o

[JustOneMore]

I like the sound of sleeping 18 hours a day.

As for my libido, well it's not as if i have a sex life anyways, so i'm not missing out on anything.

i'm still feeling pretty fed up with myself though.

[strat]

Oh yeah, and my memory's crap...

strat

[shadowedseraph]

citalopram made me projectile vomit, i felt like a cast member from the exorcist I got taken off of it, much to my relief !

However, different strokes for different folks :)

[JustOneMore]

I got a box of 40mg tabs today.

Jeez, they're like horse pills!

[strat]

Did I mention that my memory's crap?

strat

[Kalini]

:lol: Strat

JustOneMore - that'll make 'em harder to lose! :P

[Athas]

I've been on Citalopram for more than a year now and I'm okay with it. My therapist told me that it's advantage was that it wouldn't make me gain weight and that's really good. I didn't notice any side effects although I guess I should mention that I have no sex drive at all. But I can't remember having ever had a sex drive, so that might not be the side effect of Citalopram. I'm glad about it.

[~ Mandy ~]

I've been on it for just over a year, 40mg.

The only side affect I've said is that when I first started taking it, and when I started a higher dose, I was throwing up every morning. Because of that I wasn't taking it every day, but it did settle down and since then I've had no problems.

[Apps]

Have just been started on this.

Had a touch of the squits occasionally, and feel nausious just about every day, but managing to keep stuff down fortunately. Has actually increased my sex drive though .... have been like I could take on an entire cheerleader squad lately!

Like a lot of things though, have found the 'advisory' leaflet tries to cover all bases - in a 'side effects could include all/some/none of the following ...' , 'vomiting/feeling like vomiting/thinking about vomiting/spelling the word vomiting/not vomiting/having to find out that vomiting is the same as throwing up/...', 'increased sex drive/lower sex drive/same sex drive/no sex drive/drive-thru sex drive/crazy-paved sex drive/room for two vehicles sex drive/....', 'illusions, contusions, revolutions, abusions, hypertusions, protrusions/...' ..... I could go on ....

[sunshine_bear]

Hey

iv been on this, sadly didnt work for me though so hope you ahve better luck.

side effects for me were tremours in the hands, dry mouth, nausea, headaches. sorry but it was crap for me.

sunshinex

[loulou1330]

I was on this for quite a few years and once i got past the initial few weeks of nausea & tremors etc, the only real side effects were large weight increase, large nosedive regarding sexdrive and extreme mood swings if i forgot to take for more than 2/3days. Of course it could all have been down to the fact that i was on a very high dose.

Hope you have better luck, tc ;)

[Hollykins]

I was on celapram 3-4 years ago. Not sure if its the same thing or not. I think the first month I was on 10mg (half a pill) just so I could get used to it. Was bloody annoying trying to cut them in half without half of it flying across the kitchen onto the floor lol. I can't remember how I first reacted to it. I think it made me a bit tired and doped up the first week.