Do citalopram work?

Posted , 7 users are following.

Ive been prescribed with citalopram by my doctor after being on sertraline, as the sertraline seemed to make me worse and had awful side effects. Im 4 days into taking the citalopram and i cannot eat, i feel really sick and when i have eaten i have thrown up a few times! But i have heard quite good reviews about them so would like to persevere with them. But just wondering if anybody else has had these side effects and if so how long it took so the side effects to calm down? Thanks 

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  • Posted

    Hi Bethanie. May I ask a question, please? I'm currently on sertraline, I think about 11 weeks now. From the anxiety and low mood points of view they seem to definitely be taking the edge off but I'm really struggling with lack of sleep on it. I suppose I should be grateful that the lack of sleep isn't driving me too crazy, it has done before! 

    The question: when you transitioned from sertraline to citalopram, did you taper the sertraline off first? Or did you just stop taking it one day and start citalopram the next? 

    Thank you ~ I hope you're doing well on the new med smile

    • Posted

      Hello, to be fair the first time i went on sertraline i had no problems at all! No side effects they just worked. I was on them for a few years and i thought right ill come off them i dont have anxiety anymore so i stupidly didnt tell me doctor but i came off them very slowly, i was fine after them too. I came off them last august maybe and something traumatic happen in may this year (went on holiday with my boyfriend family! Never again!!! It was awful ha ha) so i think ive developed anxiety and depression again from what happened on that holiday so i told my doctor and he told me to start back on sertraline think it was 100mg i was on and i was awful! Ive never been so agressive in my life i geniunely wanted to shout and scream and god knows what else so rang my doctor told me to stop straight away so i did and i started on citalopram about a week later, id only been taking the sertraline again for about 2 weeks but that was a big drop from 100mg to just stop thinking about it so maybe i got the really really bad anxiety from the withdrawls from the sertraline. 

      Thank you for the well wishes, i am doing a lot better on these tablets now and i hope you do too. Xx

  • Posted

    Hiya Beth, Ive never done drugs, but life was on a downward spiral and so i tried sertraline for 3 months early 16', terrible side effects. Things have slowly got worse again so I'm trying Citalopram. Not good so far but I've stuck with the 2 weeks script from my doc. Seeing him tmrrw. I'm thinking of giving it a bit longer, see if the side effects settle down. That's really all I can say/advise you. If the side effects become unbearable then pack in the citalopram, but just a few days or weeks probably isn't giving the drug the time it needs. Well that's my thought anyway.

    • Posted

      Hi, thank you for the advise. I stuck with it and i feel a lot lot better (although not 100%) than i did 2 months ago. I was on 10mg for 2 weeks then since then been on 20mg. My side effects lasted about 2 weeks and i didnt seem to get any more when i upped my dose, maybe i was a bit more tired but thats not much of a problem smile id take that over the constant throwing up at the start. 

      Wishing you the best x

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