HAIR loss??????

Celexa started to help me three days after starting 5MG, I kid you not. it took two months to get up to 20mg. Everyone is different, tho. I took the GeneSight test. It told me what drugs would not cause side effects, and which drugs would, and which to avoid. You might try it, not every psychiatrist is signed up and it is still considered experimental. Six weeks is not long enough for blood titer to rise, you have to give Celexa at least three months. Plus, my therapist has helped me over these past difficult eight years. As for my hair loss, blood test showed low protein levels. I crashed last winter and ate HORRIBLY, will take months for my hair to return because I lost a lot of hair. I don't take any other meds except for very low dose Toprol. I'd rather lose my hair instead of my mind, but I don't think it's the Celexa. Give it some more time. It is a miracle drug for me but, like I said, everyone is different.

the metoprolol causes hair loss in some patients. so that might be the culprit.best regards

Just get bit despondent not making lot difference so far. i have been able to drive short distance last couple days, which haven'T been able to do for couple months, so maybe is kicking in. just desperate to improve a bit!!!

please remember to put in the work that means therapy and retraining our brains as to how we think it took a long tine for us to get here, its going to take time to get out of it the medication certainly helps but relearning how to properly process emotions is the key here is patience and persistence

OMG I can't stop taking this medication, I just can't, I'm afraid of what would happen! Did you have a metabolic panel while you were losing your hair? My protein blood levels are LOW, not normal. I pray to God that's the problem! Did you lose A LOT of hair? Did it grow back after you stopped the citalopram, are you sure it was related? Did you ask your psychiatrist? Mine tells me there's no listing of this side effect for this drug. What happened when you titered off the drug? TY

hi jo, i had bloods (all normal) and im still tapering, my hair is alot thinner and snaps really easily, but when i settle it stops falling, thats how i know its the citalopram

hair loss with the cit is unknown.now hair loss with the blood pressure med you stated is common!dont stop taking your cit because of one allegedly case or even two cases of it.look into the blood pressure med you are taking.best regards

Thanks Lois, my psychiatrist did research. She called me today, told me Citalopran CAN cause hair loss and she wants me to taper off, gave me a schedule. She also said this is not a long term drug and I've been on it 8 months so she is not expecting emotional rebound but I can always go back to 5mg a day if needed. Also, this drug enhances effects of Metoprolol WITHOUT affecting bp or heart rate, so there is more in my blood than 25mg a day and since I've taken this drug for years with NO hair loss, she said it will go back to metabolizing normally by end of October. NOW I hope the gains I made on this drug (in terms of my PTSD) will remain since I have developed tools and overcome my habit of isolation.

Yes you are correct, my psychiatrist did research as I said in an answer to another comment. Cit CAN cause hair loss. It also has affected my metabolism and stressed my liver, enzymes are high normal, plus affected protecin absorption in my colon (protein levels in my blood are 1 point below lowest normal). She gave me a tapering schedule. By end of october I will be off the Cit and she said my hair will recover. I hope I can remain off it since I've acquired skills to counteract my PTSD. Keep me informed please of how you do off the Cit and I will post as well. TY!

hi jo, you can message me anytime, ive been on it years so im tapering so slowly goodness knows what my hair will be like by then x

just be careful with the tapering .good luck

TY my psychiatrist has given me directions.

TY if I had stayed on this drug for six more months, I'd be bald! OMG! I hope it comes back as quickly as it went away.

fingers crossed, what is your tapering plan jo? x

Doctor gave me tapering plan. 15mg a day for one week, 10mg a day for one week, 5mg a day for one week, stop. She said if I experienced any significant reaction to call her but she doesn't anticipate it. Truthfully, I think most of what I believed to be help from this med was in my imagination: placebo effect. It's done much more harm than good. My hair loss is going to take a year to reverse, at least.

fire your doctor.saying a prayer for you for that weaning process.

jo that is a really fast wean, please be careful x

Well the psychiatrist is doing it this way so we'll see

She's a member of a large teaching hospital psychiatric team and has completed a fellowship as well. I like her and I trust her. So far, on 15MG no problems. This is how I got up to 20, a week or two at a time. I have no reason to fire her. If I run into a problem, I've weaned off meds harder than this one, like Remeron for example which I did cold turkey (nurse practitioner), trip from hell but I knew what it was and survived it. I'll wait and see. TY.

similar credentials like my doctor who put me thru hell and back .but unlike you i was never aware of the withdrawls .i thought i was going kuku.and celexa saved my life.good luck and take care of your mental health with what ever you think suits you.

hi jo, ive been through remeron withdrawal and it was hell but nothing compared to this i hate to say, this drug is far more powerful! x

That was your experience. It does not mean it will be mine. Thus far, I have no side effects. I am titering down in the same manner I titered up. Remeron is an anti-psychotic. Citalopram is an SSRI. I had no idea Remeron was in that class of drugs or I would not have taken it, but it helped me sleep (a very tiny dose, 7.5mg). The nurse pract. told me to just stop it, I would not have done that had I known what it was. During withdrawal, I looked it up on the internet. Knowing how difficult it is for people to come off it helped me enormously because I realized what I was experiencing was normal and would pass, and it did. This time, I have a very good psychiatrist and, should I run into a problem, she will know exactly how to manage it. She started me on 5mg for a couple of weeks, then 10 mg for a couple of weeks, then 15, then finally 20 which I have been taking only 2 months. I'll be fine. TY for your concern.

ok good luck 😃

Just wondered how your hair loss was. Been taking citalopram 10mg for 8 weeks, and about week ago anxiety racked up and I've started to loose some hair. It definitely is a side effect of taking it, listed on the leaflet you get in the box. Trying to get an appointment with doctor to try something else, as can't afford to keep loosing hair and it's not helping anyway, so as I've only been taking it short while going to stop until I can see him.!!!

Hi there Lemanna. i was just wondering if you switched yoyr antidepressant? i too have noticed hair loss with citalopram. im going to speak to my gp about swapping, Just wondered what you switched to and if you suffered any hair loss with that one? xx

hi. i think i am suffering from discontinuation syndrome, stopped citalopram 1st January and since then(also while tapering) had hair loss. normally do not see it but i have long hair and i feel it. all went normal till a month and then, it hit me with all the symptoms u can imagine, and still facing it. dont want to go to doctor as he says its a relapse of my anxiety and start medication again, which i dont want to.

how old are you if you dont mind me asking?

i am facing the same issue, i start losing my hair (in the front area) and baldness actually once i started taking citalopram 40mg ,

what about you ? is your hair loss in the front area as well ? and what about the protein level ? is it the reason why citalopram causes hair loss ?