Im on just 2.5mg escitalopram, has anyone had such a low dose??

Posted , 17 users are following.

Hi everyone,

I was prescribed nitrazepam for short use and Zoloft for long term use at first for panic disorder and mild depression after the sudden death of my younger sister and undergoing an emergency ectopic pregnancy surgery all within 2 weeks.

I stopped Zoloft because the side effect was unbearable and i almost lost consciousness! Scary!

I was prescribed escitalopram 5mg start at night, but the start up side effect was on another level all together, so my Doc decided, instead of going back and forth with meds, i can start at 2.5mg escitalopram and slowly increase. I did, i had the start up effect, though not severe.

Currently i take abt a quarter of Nitrazepam (1.25 ishh) daily from 5mg previous dose, for about a week and hope to discontinue once i feel the full effect of the escitalopram, but i keep reading that people are taking 10mg, 20mg, and im just wondering, can 2.5mg really do much for me? Could it be that the Nitra is the active one here and not the escitalopram?

Help!

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  • Posted

    You always want to start with lowest dose possible because the effects can differ per person. There is no way to know if it will be the right dose for the same reason. It could be. It wasn't the right drug for me. Like so many others, started great but after a few weeks it stopped working. I moved on to Wellbutrin. It worked well but gave me tinnitus (ringing in ears) so i had to quit. I'm on Pristiq now and its working well but you can't forget to take it because the withdrawls are horrendous. Again, every medication effects people differently. My (unprofessional) advice is to always start slow and taper off when changing drugs (if possible.)

  • Posted

    The percentage of binding to the SERT transporter of escitalopram is, on average, 64% in 10 mg doses and 60% in 5 mg doses. This implies that both doses are almost equivalent.

    Therefore, for people sensitive to this medication or with many adverse effects, a dose of 2.5 mg may be adequate.

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