Anyone on here be so kind as to share some of their experiences with Citalopram?

I had a brief and disasterous dalliance with anti-depressants years ago (prozac) and against my advice, a friend of mine has just started taking citalopram. Only a week into them and she seems to be seeing some benefits, but also some drawbacks/side effects.

So i guess my first question is, how long do they take to work properly? She has noticed quite dramatic disruption to sleep patterns, is this likely to ease or should something even this minor send her back to the GP for another chat?

can take up to 3 months to settle down and reach “full theraputic effect”. Side effects can be weird, depends whether side effects are better or worse than the reason the friends is taking them really.

give it a couple more weeks, and if she’s taking one dose a day it might be worth enquiring with the GP if she can (she might already be) take it in the morning instead of at night 🙂

without knowing what else she is taking, what dose she is on and a million other factors surrounding it i can’t give any advice other than give it more time.

EDIT:

depends whether side effects are better or worse than the reason the friends is taking them really.

+1

I found that the reduction in anxiety and general anti depressive effect allowed me to catch up on about 12 months worth of missing sleep. The least discussed side effect was a reduction in libido that lasted for a few months following stopping the drug. A woman from work also admitted that while she took them, she found the same problem. Did the job for me though; I’m still here.

Everyone reacts differently to SSRIs. When I was prescribed citalopram I had a slightly manic phase at the start, it wasn’t particularly unpleasant for me but I think I surprised my family a bit. The first few days were very interesting but I calmed down over the next few weeks. Your brain does adapt to the medication and things should settle down, although some side effects can remain pretty much permanently whilst you’re on the pills. She should keep in contact with her GP anyway, especially at the start, even if everything settles down and appears to be going smoothly.

Mum took it for a while, was OK on it, but coming off was a bit of a mare.

+1 withdrawal is a ballacher of confusion and electric head.

SSRIs are apparently not addictive but difficult to withdraw from. What’s the difference?

Sorry OP – no help to you there!

I was on Citalopram, and found taking it when going to bed was best for me. As others have said, head felt weird and wired, it was fine when taken at night tho.

I will say, if I took them an hour before going to sleep, I wouldn’t sleep until 3-4 hours after taking them.

As said, takes awhile for full effect, a month at least for me.

I found it helped within a few days – I’ve been taking 20mg / day for over 3 years and don’t intend to ever stop – feel so much calmer on it….. Personally I think it saved my life quite literally.

So i guess my first question is, how long do they take to work properly? She has noticed quite dramatic disruption to sleep patterns, is this likely to ease or should something even this minor send her back to the GP for another chat?

how much is she taking?

GP’s can be a bit enthusiastic with the dosage – going straight to 40mg without even trying 10’s (although now i say it – i’m not sure if you can get 10’s, but i hope you know what i mean).

even if she is on 40’s the side effects should ease off, but i’d be surprised if they vanished.

it’s important that she sticks to the dose, forgetting just one or 2 days can cause much weirdness.

(feel free to ignore this next bit: encourage her to find the lowest dose that works for her – it’ll make life much less traumatic when/if she decides to come off it completely)

you can still get 10mg tablets… but 20-40mg is the normal dose for depression, usually start low and build up until it does the trick.

Citalopram – took for at least 10 years but in reality it probably only helped for first few years. I changed to Prozac in 2010 as I felt citalopram was no longer beneficial (I had tried to come off it a number of times but had terrible vertigo for first week of each dose reduction). Stayed with Prozac for about 10 months and then (along with finally getting some NHS therapy as well as just medication) managed to come off all anti-depressants about March last year. Having said that I had begun the reduction in the previous October. It took so long as I basically reduced my dose SO slowly. Literally first reduction was to go down to missing one day a week, then after a month 2 days a week (not consecutive) etc. That worked along with the therapy to get me off medication after the best part of 20 years on one form or another. Personally when I started I found no effect for at least 3 weeks. If your friend is was having effects in week one my advise would be to return to GP and discuss. A different one may be better. It is certain that no two people have exactly the same experience.

As an example I also take a statin every day. It took 3 different ones to find one that worked for me (first one actually pushed my BP up quite dramatically).

Has your friend tried seeing a clinical psychologist and undergoing therapy/CBT? Make’s a world of difference in mild cases of depression or anxiety.

Lifestyle changes go a long way to helping someone who has dysthymia as opposed to episodes of severe depression which I can only describe as total and utter blackness.

It’s generally thought GP’s tend to over prescribe SSRI’s. http://psychminded.co.uk/news/news2005/april05/GPs%20prescribe%20antidepressants%20even%20though%20they%20believe%20other%20approaches%20might%20be%20more%20effective.htm

I took citalopram for about 2 weeks, I found within a few days I was getting anxious and aggressive, so chose to move onto a different anti-depressant after discussing it with my doctor, and the mental health team in my locality. I actually tried 3 different anti-depressants before finding a 4th that seemed to have bearable side effects and therapeutic value.

Despite being grouped together, SSRIs don’t all have the same effects, and will be tolerated differently by different people, so just because you’ve had a bad experience doesn’t mean your friend will.

There’s masses of debates about the value of anti-depressenats and their overmedication etc. but as I see it, to get to the stage where you see a GP about the way you feel, you need help.

Being offered a talking therapy somehow (to me at the time at any rate) doesn’t feel like you’re doing “something” so the feelings of loosing control and hopelessness perpetuate. Taking medication made me feel like even though everything seemed black, I was taking something that was going to help, and give me some control back.

Gaining a little bit of positivity when things seem so dark can be all that it takes to start to do the little things that actually make the biggest differences, like eating properly, exercising, or even just showering in the morning.

I hope your friend starts feeling better soon.

thanks all, good pointers

ive no idea what dose she is on (mg) but as far as i know its one-a-day so i will suggest a return to the doc to think about altering the timing of the dose. From what i have read above, sounds like she is taking it for breakfast and perhaps its “run out” causing her to wake up, mind racing.

i know she has been seeing a counsellor of sorts for some time, but dont know the details of that

you sound like a thoughtful and caring friend 🙂

*cocks a quizzical eyebrow @ phil*

ok, so i dont know everything about everything, but if i had a full knowledge i wouldnt need to ask general questions on here.

You need to be absolutely sure they are the answer. Have blood tests been taken to rule out other things?

Not wishing to be cynical but some GPs do prescribe them when they cba’d looking for anything else!

it was a genuine comment 🙂 your friend must think you’re a good guy otherwise she wouldn’t be speaking to you about such things!

(granted my exposure to mental health is at the pretty sharp end in my current role, but its rare to find good supportive friends… family yes, but friends who stick by are less common, and as such they always get a huge amount of respect from me)

ooops, sorry phil – seems im running out of sense of humour today
*self medicates*

im asking as im scared shitless of these things, my experiences are particularly dark and haunting, much of which i wouldnt dare share with anyone, especially her at the moment.

cg – thats a part of my experience.