Citalopram, anxiety returned at 12 months
Posted , 2 users are following.
Hello everyone,
I have been on 10mg now for 12 months. by about 4 months plus i could tell i was improving a lot. By 6 months I felt the best I have felt since pre children. I still get anxious etc but it is normal anxiety that everyone else has and i don't respond to it. I have been fully back to my self and very happy.
However this last week when i went to get my prescription it was a different brand. i didn't think anything of it and took the tablets. By day 5 on these i got a wave of anxiety in the middle of the night. I am not sure if it is the brand change but i asked for my old brand back and had to not take a tablet for one day to wait for the chemist to get my old brand. I am now on day 6 of being back on my old brand and still very anxious. I also have nausea and a bad tummy. All much worse in the morning. pre changing tablets etc i wasn't feeling anxious and would say I was in a really good
place.
is this a blip or a setback and could this be due to messing about with brands?
After feeling so well (which i am so grateful to the tablets for) it is hard to accept this.
thank you for any advice.
0 likes, 7 replies
ian90586 K83JM
Posted
Hi,yes it is 100% the change of brand and don't listen to anybody who tries to convince you otherwise. Make sure with your pharmacist you keep to the same brand while taking the medication or it will happen again. That can be difficult if you are in the UK, as they tend to change brand on a regular basis to save the NHS money,and there are very many generic brands out there to choose from. Take care.
K83JM ian90586
Posted
Hi Ian,
thank you for replying. it was you who encourages me to stick with the side affects when i first started on citalopram and i am very grateful for tour help back then.
Thanks. I am starting to think it is not a brand change as i feel fine physically now but feel like i am fully back in the anxiety cycle. I have swapped brand before too and not had this issue. Is it still possible to have a set back at 1 year. I have felt like my old self for so long it feels even harder to accept. I have read a lot on here about people being fully better by 6 months but does that mean you are not supposed to have blips or setbacks again once you have been on it for longer?
i dont want to mess with my dose as 10MG seemed to be fine for me and i have been doing great. will things get better for me again if i keep going with them?
thank you
ian90586 K83JM
Posted
Hi,glad to hear you improved over time. From my experience with problems with generic brands of Citalopram,reading other people's problems and researching why it occurs,plus the timing of when you were given the brand change,I would still say that is the cause of the upset.
Five days of change of another brand is enough to totally disrupt the levels of Serotonin in your brain,hence the nausea and bad stomach. Your Serotonin levels probably dropped somewhat due to the other brand being slightly weaker and the nausea occurs from going back up again. It will take time to settle again so be patient,and as I said,make sure with your pharmacist you keep to the same brand. Doctors or pharmacists will not admit to it to you,but a lot of them know, especially pharmacists, so make sure when you pick up your prescription that they are the same before you leave the premises as they can't be swapped once you walk out the door. Take care.
K83JM ian90586
Posted
Thank you again for
your reply.
would it explain the heightened anxiety that i have now? it feels as bad as when i first started. i am on day 7 of taking my old tablets again and feels
like i am starting all over again?
thanks for explaining what changing brands can do too. i spoke to my pharmacist who said all brands are the same and shouldn't affect anything?
just for sole reassurance if this isn't to do with brand change is it still possible to have blips at one year?
thank you again
ian90586 K83JM
Posted
Hi,Google Changed my brand of Citalopram UK, and a list of people on this very forum will appear with exactly the same problem as you are experiencing.
I took all the branded SSRI antidepressants over a 18 year period with no problems, including branded Citalopram until I was given generic Citalopram,then the problems started. As I said, doctors and pharmacists WILL NOT admit to it or are ignorant because then they would have to give everyone the branded Citalopram which would be inconvenient and more expensive.
12 months is far too long on an antidepressant to be having setbacks I believe,though added extreme stress can bring back some side effects but not like you describe.
Generic manufacturers are allowed a +/- tolerance when copying the original drug and different bulking agents that deliver the drug into your system can also make a difference. The tolerance means that in practice,some brands may be slightly stronger or weaker than others. Seeing as everything comes down to money,I suspect that nearly always they will be weaker. The last time I took Citalopram I insisted with my Dr. that I would only take branded Citalopram for that very reason. They have to write it on the prescription. After some months I was given generic Citalopram by mistake and I took them for a few days. Then my anxiety came back with a vengeance and I had to have them swapped back.
K83JM ian90586
Posted
Thank you Ian. IT does definitely make sense.
I am in the UK. Do I have to basically shop around local pharmacists with my prescription to get the brand I need? Do they order them in ? or is this all about how willing they are?
Thanks
ian90586 K83JM
Posted
Hi, there's not a lot you can do because there's lots of companies making generic medications,and it's all about the cost to the NHS. When I researched it,I found out over 50 companies on the NHS list manufacturing Citalopram. It probably goes out to contract for a certain period,then when that contract is up and another company come in cheaper,they give them the contract. I'm not sure exactly what goes on because you won't find information on the internet, it's all very hush hush. You generally won't get any co-operation off your doctor or pharmacist,who will just deny it and say it's your own anxiety,not the medication. It's a disgrace,and applies to lots of medications,not just antidepressants. Without the internet and people talking about it,then it would never be known. It doesn't happen to everyone,and doesn't happen all the time you swap,but when it does happen it's terrible as you know. Happened to me many times.