Decreasing from 30mg to 20mg

Treatment and medication
1

I went to the doctors yesterday and after a year on Citalopram.....30mg since last May......We decided I would decrease to 20mg. Not ready to come off completely but just felt I could go down a bit.

Have any of you got any tips on how best to do this......?

Thank you,

Emma

2

Your dr did the right thing giving you that antidepressant,  I have been on it for years and just go off when I feel better.  Just take the new dose you should not experience any changes at all.

3

Hi Emma, lots of people on this site say to reduce really slowly.  Personally I would go down in 5 mg and go down to 25 mg (cut a tablet up) and stay on that a few weeks and then go down to 20 mg,  That way you don't get the withdrawal symptoms.

4

Decreasing or withdrawing is best done with minimal dose decreasing and over a long time to avoid withdrawal effects either by 5mg or 2.5mg at a time, spending about 1-2 months on each reduction.  

When I came off I bought a pill cutter and cut my 20mg into 4 making each one 5mg and when I got down to the last 5mg I then crushed it as was too small to cut any further, and then took half the powder.  Depends what mg your pills are.

I spent a year wihdrawing and had no effects doing it this way.  Can thoroughly recommend doing similar when reducing too.

K x 

5

Ah missed your post - I just repeated it below xx

6

Thank you, that's great. I bought a pill cutter today so I can cut the 10mg in half and go down to 25mg for a few weeks and then 20mg.

I'm so scared of having the side effects I had when I increased.

Thanks again for all your advice.

7

Just do it a bit at a time and don't be in a hurry.  If you start to feel side effects then just go back up again by 5mg and wait there until things have settled.  When you try again do it by 2.5mg and see if that helps instead.  5mg is a really teensy amount and probably won't affect you at all ..... though of course it does with some.

Let us know how things go.

K x

8

I was on 20mg for about 4 years and it followed my Doctors instructions it took me 5 months to reduce slowly to 10mg.  Certinly not easy but stick with it and Good Luck. X

9

Thank you, i will. X

10

Hi Emma

yes I have been here before when it took me a year to reduce from 20 mg

I did similar to Kate cogs

slow is the key here totally agree...

i got a pill cutter and 10 mg tablets

i reduced myself by 2.5 mg at a time each two weeks and like Kate stayed were I was for a further two weeks if I felt at all unstable...trust us..you will know! 

I alternated my doses by day also e.g.

20/17.5/2017.5

17.5/17.5/17.5/17.5

17.5/15/17.5/15

and so on

that was 2013

slower and smaller reductions than what my Gp suggested but no effects 

i have had to go back on it in jan...I think with hindsight I should have never stopped it

i wasn't right off it now I look back

 but like you I intend to eventually reduce to 5/10 mg if am stable at lower dose ....and stay on it for life