Citalopram
 

Hiyaa, i've been prescribed citalopram and i was just wanting to hear other people's experiences with it(did it work for you, did it not?, get any side effects?, etc)

I've not been on them very long but i think have experienced some side effects, i dunno if it's kinda like a shock to the system or something. I'm getting nausea,diarrhea and headaches, which is reallyy not very nice :(

Would be good to hear from yous :) x

I've been on citalopram for about 5 years. I don't remember having any side effects but I do get withdrawal if I forget to take it more than a few days. I'm on 60mg though.

I hope it works for you and that the side effects stop soon,

good luck :)

I have had good experiences with citalopram. I am currently using it to stabilise moods not so much to reduce depression. My dr and I tend to go from the objective - is it doing any harm vs is it doing any good. But that is likely due to the nature of my emotional difficulties more than the limitations of the AD itself.

Side effects - nausea and a dry mouth. It didn't last long though.

It never really worked for me but the side effects I got were weird dreams, metallic taste in my mouth, and brain zap headaches when I withdrew from it.

I was on 20mg escitalopram, very similar to citalopram, but not completely identical so this may not be of much use
It set off my panic attacks more often and made me more weepy. It just generally didn't work for me. It was a little while ago so I don't remember a lot else just that I felt nauseous for the first little while.

SNRI's seem to work better for me but fluoxetine also works a bit.

I was on citalopram for about two weeks. Didn't get on with it though don't know why. Then was put on escitalopram, which I then had other issues with.

i'm on citalopram 20mg. i had horrible side effects when i started it. I still don't think its helping and its 3 months on. we'll see.
good luck xx

I started 20mg in 2008 and it just made me a bit more tired, I think.

One thing I do remember is feeling 10 times better and being manically happy after a week or so then feeling worse than I did before and couldn't stop crying or thinking about suicide. It eventually levelled out though.

I get real issues with SSRI's, i think there is a name for it... so yeah, they really didn't work

I tried Citalopram for a month and gave up when I realised I was either the same as before or even worse, I was dizzy, couldn't sleep, contantly tired (one day a sual hour journey to college took 4 because I had to stop 3 times to rest/sleep for a while), i had constant nausea, couldn't function - more like a zombe, increased SH and strong SS thoughts...my mum still recons I should have stuck with it as 'it takes up to 8 weeks to work' bah...really couldn't stand it, I didn't pass college last year cos of everything in the end :(

Good luck and hope it works for you

I didnt have any physical side effects but mentally it really wore me out but I have had real issues with anti depressants as we dont tend to mix well. I'm on 10 mg and have since found it to be helpful so yes!

I started on 20mg a day and had some side effects, mainly sweating and a terrible sleep pattern. The doc raised me to 40mg then 60mg and that seems to have leveld me out now. I went through a few weeks of raised SH thoughts but nothing to serious.

Been on citalopram 20mg since november i think. Haven't been taking it properly though, haven't noticed any side effects and feel the sertraline was better but tbh i don't think depression is the main problem for me. It definitely hasn't helped with my anxiety.

It was the first I got put on and I couldn't stand them.

Usually I'm extremely sharp as in understanding something or figuring something out but on them it was like a fog descended on my mind and sometimes I couldn't even make a full sentence without losing what I was thinking.

I stopped them cold turkey, (against doctor's advice), and the worst thing were brain zaps; horrible little buggers...

Thanks for all the responses, really good to hear from other people what it's like. My mum's on it aswell and she only has good things to say about it. For me it seems to be working, which i'm sooo happy about. The only thing is i've got way too many side effects for my liking. The nausea has went away but the headaches are ridiculous. Probably worst of all is anorgasmia haha. Some fatigue aswell. Oh well, least i'm a bit happy :)

Hey, glad they are working for you, I have been on 40mg for about a year, and found them ok, though im kind of at the point that I dont know if they are working, its hard to tell if id be better without them? As for side affects, the only ones I have had are tierdness, essp when my dose was raised from 20 to 40mg (i have never been sure that the raised dose has helped to be honest, but my GP wants to me to stay at 40mg, in some ways I think i felt better on 20..) and increased nightmares.

I'm glad it's working for you. I've been on 20 mg for about a month. I've started yawning a LOT. I mean, I've yawned 40 times in series. It's kind of annoying. I felt really good for a week, but now I feel like garbage again. I suppose I'll give it a little longer to see if I level out, because now I feel like harming. :/

Also, does anyone know why you're not supposed to drink with this? I've never been a big drinker, but what would happen if I were to have a few drinks socially? What would happen if I decided to get smashed? I don't plan on it, but all of my friends are coming of age soon, so I want to know.

Having a couple of drinks never affected me when I took Citalopram, neither did getting completely blootered.
I'm not condoning getting completely ****ed up, but if you were to over-indulge, as everyone does from time to time, I'd suggest taking your pill in the morning.

If it's working for you, that's the main thing.

Citalopram never really worked for me. I had nightmares, dry mouth, sickness, shakes, trouble sleeping and twitches.

I'm now on Sertraline, another SSRI, and it works 10x better :)

I'm quite a big drinker so i was wondering about that aswell. My hangovers are absolutely ridiculous. Drinking generally the same as i did before but the hangover's like 10x worse :S. Probably should massively cut down, because it's horrible. Got a hangover the now actually, just not going away! :( I'm always worried that i'll be sick and bring the pill back up aswell. I heard somewhere that drinking effects it because it makes work less?(couldn't find the right words there haha) not sure if that's true or not though.

Felt exactly the same.

plus my mout watered and a yawned alot.

but everybody's different and reacts to them differently, just give them a go, and if you don;t like them, you can always change then (: Good luck with them x

I can;t be totally sure.

but i don't think your really meant to drink on any medication.

(The odd ONE is probabaly okay, but i don; think they advice totaly binging)

But maybe it has something to do with the anti Depressent, and alcohol being a DEPRESSENT.

Maybe they cancel eachother out or react to one another??
I can't be sure!
so don't take my word (:

But it could explain something (:

I'm on 40 mg, I hate taking it but I have to. It doesn't make me feel any better, it just makes me feel numb. I haven't cried since I've been on it (I hate that, cause when I can't, I cut.), since April 2010, after I was diagnosed with GAD and depression.

Ive been on citalopram 40mg for the past 3 yrs. Side effect wise the only ones i suffered from were the intial 4 weeks when it made me feel suicidal. However after my body adjusted to the meds i was fine. Personally i dont notice any change, however everyone around me in my life has.
As for driking on it, i have never had any issue with it.
I will say this tho, since i have been on the meds i havent harmed myself since, so they are worth a shot. If they dont work then theres always something else out there to try.

I've been taking citalopram for a week now. I think it's increased my anxiety. I feel on edge a lot of the time. The anxiety effects my sleep, which it did before taking the tablets, I find it difficult to get to sleep, and now with citalopram i wake up frequently through the night too. I do sometimes feel a little numb aswell. I think deep down i regret taking them. But then I think I do want to give them a chance. Does anyone know what the possible side effects would be if I went cold turkey?

I was on Citalopram for all of a month before I had to be taken off it. It made me really agitated. Physically I couldn't sit still and mentally my head was racing. This lead to an increase in suicidality and a stint in the psych ward where they decided SSRI's weren't my thing (prozac made me more suicidal too).

Saying that though, AD's affect everyone differently, so you really just have to wait and see how you feel on it. Just make sure that if you think it's made you more unsafe you see a GP or psychiatrist ASAP so they can do something about it.

My anxiety died down over the weekend :). I do find that I wake up with anxiety a little tho. I don't know how normal that is for me, if it's something I should cope with you know, while i'm getting my life back on track? If I get myself up and carry on with whatever i've planned the it does ease off.
I'm not sure if i'm feeling better or not to be honest. I know I still have a while yet to give the tablets a chance. I did feel depressed two days ago, which i just tried to fight through the day. Maybe the citlopram will just make the depression more easier to manage?
Last week a family member had a go at me, saying I need to get a job and sort my life out and stuff... So maybe it's not the pills at all which are working i'm just reacting to that? :S

They say antidepressants take at least 3 weeks to kick in (or at least that's what they tell me). Be patient, and keep an eye on yourself and your symptoms as you've been doing.

A pill can't fix anything, but antidepressants help a lot of people :)