my mum has just been prescribed citalopram and i am very...

In my experience, drinking while taking citalopram made me feel more depressed. I imagine your mum will just be cancelling out the effects of the drug with the alcohol.

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I have been taking citalopram for around four weeks now. I am only 19 years of age, but due to witnessing domestic violence as a young child I find it difficult to trust people and am very tearful and generally depressed. I started suffering from panic attacks so the Dr prescribed me 10mg for 2weeks then changed it to 20mg. I am not feeling much better, I am very tearful, suffering from splitting headaches and am constantly thinking about going to bed to sleep. I quit my job yesterday as I am not in my normal frame of mind. I am not regretting this as of yet, and seem determined to get another job asap, but I don't feel confident enough to go to an interview. It seems my situation is now worse as it is coming up to Christmas and I have no money!!! Writing this has actually made me feel a little better, it's nice to be able to talk about things without being face-to-face!!

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I was on citalopram for 2 years. During this time, I felt well enough to go out and drink with my friends. What I noticed was that I would black out. That had never happened to me before taking this medication, no matter how much I drank. I would literally wake up the next day and say "what did I do?" Now that I am off of the medication it has never happened again. I would mention your mum's dependancy on alchohol to her doctor, just to be safe.

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I have just been prescribed this drug by my GP today. I mentioned that I am on a self-destruct route of high alcohol/cigarette dependency as a result of depression and he said that it was OK, a lot of people drink whilst on antiD's because of the depression.

However I note that it clearly states NOT to drink, although no adverse effects appear to be in the literature. My main concern would be the etra loading it may put on the liver in competing to metabolise the drug cocomitantly with the alcohol - hence the feects of both may be exascerbated and be more prolonged.

Watch this space!

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I have been on this drug for 3 years, and after only being on it for a few months I felt well enough to have one bottle of alcopop, I was up all night being sick and since then have been to scared to drink anymore then half a bottle of alcopop.

I hope in a good way, that your mum is sick when she drink's only a little, as it may help her drink less when she is feeling so ill when she does.

Good luck :?

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I have been taking Citalopram since 14th November 2006. The dose has been ramped up in discrete stages by my GP from 10mg to my current 30mg. I generally feel that the medication is not helping me at all although my situation is rather dire including bereavement, relationship break down, loss of job and, hence imprending bankruptcy and loss of home.

I have always been a regular and, some would say, heavy drinker of Beer and have continued to drink within my limited financial resources throughout medication.

Although I would caution you that self observation is not a strong suit in me I would warn anyone against drinking on this medication. I have found that, even with relatively small quantities of alcohol, I have been doing things that I would have said are completely out of charcter for me. I become angry, irritable my sleeplessness becomes worse and I generally feel unwell. I guess the only reason I persist with the drinking is that I have no friends and the only place to have any interaction with society is in the pub.

I can only hazard a guess as to how dangerous it may be to ingest stronger alcoholic drinks than beer.

Best wishes

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[quote:07b319dafd=\"J.\"]my mum has just been prescribed citalopram and i am very concerned as her doctor is not aware that she has a drinking problem. i was wondering if anyone has any experience of a similar situation as i am scared that she is putting her health at an even greater risk.[/quote:07b319dafd]

I can't comment on specific interactions between citalopram and alcohol, but I recently went to the GP suffering from depression with an underlying drinking problem, and the GP refused to prescribe antidepressants until the drinking was under control - he explained that alcohol abuse would only exacerbate my depression. I have since started an alcohol detox programme using a short term course of Chlordiazepoxide (Librium) and after 3 days alcohol free, have been prescribed 20mg citalopram for the depression (start today). I think that the GP certainly needs to know about the drink problem, but your mother should should not immediately stop drinking before taking medical advice - the withdrawal symptoms from going \"cold turkey\" can be serious, and in some cases fatal.

As I have posted earlier my hubby has been on Citalopram very sucessfully for a number of months. However, a couple of weeks ago we had visitors and he drank over a number of days, only a couple of pints of lager, and the change was dramatic. He became anxious, unreasonable, beligerant and hardly slept at all. I thought it was just the anxiety of having visitors until we realized that it was the drink. This weekend we've had a load of family visiting and as he's not had alcohol he's managed really well and not got stressed at all. The alcohol really does cancel the positive effects of the drug and even seems to make all the symptoms much, much worse.

I think the doctor does need to know about her drinking and for those who do drink and take Citalopram I would suggest that if it doesn't seem to be working it's not the drug it's the alcohol.

I'm interested to find this thread relating to consumption of alcohol whilst taking citalopram.

I take it thru the winter as I have SAD. I don't drink much as a rule, so when I read on a leaflet that you need to watch the booze it kind of washes over me...

Last Easter I was out with some friends and was absolutely rat-a**ed after just 2 pub measure G & T's and not feeling too hot the next day. I just couldn't understand it. I know my tolerance isn't high, as I don't drink often anyway, but even so I couldn'tunderstand it, until I thought about the med. I was away from home and didn't have the advice leaflet with me, it was spring and I was weaning off then any way.

Today I start again, so read through the leaflet, didn't notice that it said NO alcohol and thought of doing a little internet research, I didn't have very long on the med last winter, so fairly new to it.