Hi Everyone
My GP has put me on Citalopram. I started taking them today, 10mg, 1 a day.
I’m very apprehensive about taking them and wondered if anyone on here is taking them who would share their experiences with me please.
Jan
Hi Jan
I presume your GP commenced you on citalopram as an anti-deptressant.Is that right? 10mg is a very small dose and would be considered sub therapeutic, however your GP may intend to increase to 20mg over the next couple of weeks which is a therapeutic dose. Has he advised you to take this in the morning? Best taken then as it causes a raising of alertness and can therefore prevent you from sleeping at night if taken then.
As I said 10 mg is a small dose and if stepped up to 20 mg can have a good effect on improving mood if taken consistently for a period of up to 6 months.
Your GP and local pharmacist should be able to provide you with additional information if you need it. Take care. J.
Hi Jan.
I have taken Citalopram in the past for anxiety and depression. Can’t remember dosage but quite small. It certainly helped even my feelings out and find a way of coping with things. I remember it took a little while (two weeks maybe) to show any effect and I did need to come off of it gradually rather than stop abruptly. I don’t recall it having any side effects. It does seem a bit scary to be on antidepressants but for me it was beneficial and it was only temporary, to allow me to cope with what was going on in my life at that point.
Wishing you all the best xxx
I’m currently taking 20mg per day to help combat the PTSD and depression I ended up with after being so ill at the end of chemo. My GP started me off on 10mg and then moved it up to 20mg after 3 weeks. One of the benefits has been that it has much reduced the night sweats I was getting from being thrown into menopause by chemo (doesn’t get rid of the hot flushes but yay to being less sweaty! ;D).
I’ve not experienced any SEs with it at all and it’s certainly helping with what it was prescribed for.
Nymeria x
Hi Jan,
I, too, take 20mg citalopram daily, for depression. I have been taking it for 2 years when it became apparent after finishing chemotherapy that I was just not coping. I resisted additional help for a year before agreeing to see the doctor, when citalopram was prescribed, but didn’t begin taking it until a few months afterwards when life just became impossible.
I noticed a difference in my outlook more or less immediately. It was certainly a relief not to be in tears all the time and although I have questioned whether I want to continue taking them (I feel so balanced most of the time that it just feels so out of character) I have also questioned whether I should increase the dosage - so not so balanced after all!
Are you expecting the dose to increase at all? When are you expecting to see your doctor again to review your dosage?
Let us know how you get on with it.
Naz
x
Hi thank you all for your replies.
Jaynek - Yes my GP has put me on these tablets for depression. I’m not sure I am depressed to be honest. Apart from BC my marriage broke down which my GP is aware of but I thought I;d got to the stage of coping with that. He’s given me a 10mg dose to start with because I have severe migraine which I take Rizatriptan for. Apparently the two drugs don’t mix very well. I have to go back and see my GP in 2 weeks. I think he did say something about increasing the dose. He didn’t say anything about what time of day to take Citalopram so thank you for your advice, I’ll take it in the morning. One of my problems is that I don’t sleep.
Naz and southernlucy - My GP said that I would find it easier to cope. I suppose I feel a bit as if I’m wading through treacle some of the time. He said I may feel a bit shaky inside to start off with but that will disappear after a few days and there won’t be any SEs after that but the list in the leaflet with the tablets is as long as my arm!!!
I have been very tearful in the past but I thought that I was coming to terms with everything that’s happened and felt that I was moving on.
I do trust my GP. I’ve known him and his wife since before he became my doctor, he is a friend and knows me well. I’ve said that I will try these and see if I feel better.
Love to you all. Yes I’ll report back Naz thank you.
Jan
hi jan , i have been on them twice once 8 yrs ago after losing my hubby and again may this year , you may feel worse in first couple weeks as they heighten your feelings but please hang in there because they do help i was more anxious at first, headachey and jittery but that went and then settled down xxxx
i just restarted sertraline 50mg for depression… was on them 2 years ago when i was diagnosed the last time and been put back on them again as all this shit hit the fan at the same time again.
not had any personal experiences of citalopram but its a very common AD and has very good effects for the majority of people who use it.
you can feel a bit worse for the first couple of weeks you take it but then puts you onto a more even keel… when you come to stop you need to do so gradually and not just do a sudden stop as you can get unpleasant side effects.
10mg of citalopram is not the recommended dose for depression that is the dose given for panic attacks, 20mg is given for depression… acording to the bnf rizatriptin is differnt make-up from sumatriptin which does have increased effects with ADs but rizatriptan doesnt… think you should be ok on rizatriptan even at igher dose… you are better checking with your pharmacist though than the GP he maybe just presumes because sumatriptan has an interaction that rizatriptan will too.
best of luck.
lulu xx
Hi,
I’ve been on Citalopram for about 18 months - a 10 mg dose. I was very reluctant to take it at first but it has been a huge help in sorting out my mood swings. I used to have great surges of anger and frustration (not without some cause cos there was a lot of stuff going on in my life) and these pills have helped even things out. I also take rizatriptan for megraines and checked with my neurologist who said it was OK to take both, recently the rizatriptan seems to be less effective but I don’t know if that is related to the other pills or not.
I’de say give them a go and keep an open mind.
cheers
Caroline
hi, I very reluctantly started to take these pills about 3 months ago now,
its is probably one of the best things I have done, I wasnt coping very well with pretty much everything,
the way I look now, i.e. mx scar, loss of hair etc,
now whether is coincidental which I think not, although I still get down days, its not as bad as it was so yes I think that must be down to the pills.
Give them a try, not much to lose, maybe something to gain, dont knock yourself for it, I did at first because I dont like taking pills if I can avoid it, but sometimes maybe you need something to help you a bit.
Good Luck and I hope you feel better fast lots of love to you Liz x
Morning
Thank you so much for replying. It’s good to know that some of you are also taking rizatriptan. It’s possibly not being able to take that which frightens me the most. Rizatriptan has been so good for me and I rely on it very heavily because my migraines are so bad. Actually now you mention it I think that doc did say that Citalopram made rizatriptan less effective. He asked me if I thought I could manage without them and I really couldn’t but I agreed to try and use them less, but I’m worrying about that now because if I get a migraine there’s nothing else which will get rid of it.
All your comments are so helpful and encouraging. I’ve never been prescribed AD’s before and I do find it very scary to be honest.
Thanks for the info that I might feel worse for a couple of weeks, now I know that I won’t worry about it.
Love to you all,
Jan x
Hi Liz
Your post just popped up as I pressed ‘submit’. I don’t like taking pills either and I seem to be taking so many at the moment.
You are right maybe do have something to gain from these, most people seem to feel better for taking them.
I’m so sorry that you’ve had a such a bad time. I had a WLE and rads so not a huge change to my appearance. I suppose we all have different things to cope with. Sometimes there’s just too much, BC seems to throw up so many other issues.
I’ll give them a whirl.
Thank you so much
Love to you
Jan xxx
I’ve been on citalopram since feb diagnosis. I’d been having a tough time before diag due to trying to conceive and having treatment for that, couldn’t take anti depressants whilst trying to get pregnant and going through fertility treatment.
Then as soon as Diag I just felt so hard done to by fate that I thought s*d it and went to docs and got them.
I feel I’ve coped emotionally pretty well considering everything thats been thrown at me, I put some of this down to toughening due to life experiences in past but also to the Citalopram too because I started to cope better once that kicked in.
I know a lot of people don’t like taking pills but I can’t help but think that with all the stuff thrown at our bodies with treatment, a few pills aren’t going to make a huge difference, ESPECIALLY with chemo!!!
I am finding this drug really helpful. It helps me to get on with my life and stay positive. Previously I was really struggling having been dx with primary and sec (bone mets) last November. My moods seem to be more stable now. I had some whoozyness at first but after a few days I felt fine.
Good luck
Suzanne x
I have been taking this drug for nearly 5 years now at 10mg per day. I was all set to stop taking it when I got my secondary diagnosis and my Doc said that I would need it.
I did try and wean myself off it a few months ago but found that I was starting to feel low - maybe psychological - anyway, I am still taking it. 10mg is a VERY low dose and I have found it very helpful. She did suggest going up to 20mg but so far I haven’t needed to.
My Doc persuaded me to have it first when I had post natal depression after my second child was born. She said that if I was diabetic I would take a drug to fix it - she said same thing - a chemical imbalance that Citalopram will help to reverse and stabilise and it did. I had a long break from it before I got my cancer diagnosis.
I hope it helps you too. There is no point feeling any worse than you need to. If it helps you have a more positive outlook then that it all to the good.
Sue x
Morning
Thank you all for posting your experiences. I had a really bad day yesterday. I felt so ill, dizzy, trembling and feeling so sick with a bad headache. I thought I was going to have to phone the doc this morning and tell him that I couldn’t carry on if this was going to be the norm.
Anyway I woke up this morning feeling OK in fact probably slightly better than I’ve felt for a while so maybe this medication is starting to have an effect. I know I have to wait 2 weeks for them to kick in fully but I’m optimistic now.
It helps enormously to know that you have all been helped by this medication. There’s only really the people who have ‘been there and done it’ who know what it’s like. My GP is very good but it’s you all who have given me most information so thank you very much for that.
I hope I won’t get a repeat performance of yesterday I have two important meetings at work!!! Don’t want to be doolally for them!!!
Love to you all. I hope you have the lovely sunshine we have here today.
Jan xxx
Hi Everyone
Just though I’d pop in and update my Citalopram situation.
First of all thanks to those who said that I’d feel worse before I felt better. That has certainly been true, the first week was quite difficult, I did feel very ill at times. I’d planned to go and visit my brother last week and I wondered if I would be OK to travel on the train on my own I felt so ill. But I did go and I did enjoy it and while I was there I started to feel better.
I now do feel a lot better and much more able to cope. I saw my GP this morning and he has told me to continue to take the same dose. The reason for that is that I can take my migraine medication without it causing problems. Apparently Rizatriptan doubles the effect of Citalopram so if you are on a higher does already if can cause a problem.
Thanks to all of you for your experiences and for encouraging me to carry on taking them. I did and, as my friend said, I’m much perkier!!
Love to all
J xxx
HI
I took citalopram twice before - 5 years & 3 years ago & am on the verge of calling for an appointment to go back on them 1 year after DX as I am not coping with re integrating back into “normal” life after a year of treatment & recovery. I too found that the 1st 2 weeks wwere hard & it can be tempting to give up but I know from experience that after the first few weeks things do settle & then I started to feel more like myself again & my mood swings settled.
having just written that I have decided I will make the call tomorrow AM & bite the bullet. I hope things settle for you & they do help. as others said 10MG is probably just a starting dose as 20mg is the normal theraputic dose. I ended up at 40 MG 3 years ago & came off too quickly so had to go back on them for a short while & do a better reduction over time as I got bad side effects but once I did it properly I had no probs coming off them.
XXXXXXX jo XXXXXX
My doctor started me off at 20mg and I ended up in emergency with a nervous breakdown…it caused me to have unrelenting anxiety. They suggested I take ativan when I felt this way until the citalopram kicked in but I was so spooked I never went back on. There are all kinds of these drugs with different modes of operation, but that one bad effect really has me terrified of them all. Citalopram and most of the other antidepressants of this class are stimulants. There’s a class of antidepressants that are more sedating but put on weight, another thing I wish to avoid. *sigh*…haven’t found the magic formula!
I take these also. My dose has varied regularly. I started on 20 mg and then went to 20mg one day and 10 mg the next. Just now I’m back on 20mg each day. My GP is fab and very reassuring.
We’ve obviously been through a tough time and my GP says it’s totally great that we are coping with it. The side effects only lasted a few weeks and GP says there is no problem with staying on Citopralam long term. I just decrease and increase the dose as needed.
It’s fine after the intial few weeks when I thought I shouldn’t have given in. Then my GP made me realise how much I’d been through and I keep monitoring the mood etc.
Hang in there.
K