Swapping 50 mg day Citalopram to 50 mg a day Sertraline

Treatment and medication
1

Hi

I have been taking Citalopram for about 6 years

I started on 10 mg then up to 20mg for a couple of years

 over the years have been up and down between 20 -40 mg a day

I have had a bad time in the 9 months and i am now up to 50 mg a day Citalopram

Work even paid for me to have 4 counseling sessions

Anyway the 50mg dose has caused side affects

I feel flat ,im not sleeping properly,im distant sometimes shaky

loss of labido ,difficulty urinating sometimes

My GP has just given me 50mg Sertraline

She has told me to just stop taking the citalopram tommorrow

and start the Sertraline

I am really worried about possible side affects from stopping the Cit'

Has anyone experienced anything similar to this ?

Thanks

 

2

I was taking 100mg of Sertraline and was going off of it back on to 40mg of Citaloprame and I just stopped the Sertraline and was ok, since you have the ssri already in your system not as bad. Try using Ativan if you have any side effects that may help.

3

Hi David

Thanks for the reply

Did the Sertraline not suit you ?

I have been worrying because the sides from even reducing Citalopram for me was terrible

But at the moment the sides from being on cit are not very nice so guess I've got nothing to lose in trying a change

What is Avitan ?

Thanks Lee

4

Hi Lee,

Ativan is a benzodiasioine, for anxiety. It works well when going through withdrawals from one med or the other if you get anxiety.

I stopped the Zoloft because it didn't work for me and ended up back on the Citaloprame which has been something that had worked well. I changed because I thought it stoped working next time I will try and just up the dose and once it starts working again i would drop it back down.

5

Thanks David

Good luck with your change over

Lee

6

Hi Lee I have a quick question. Are you in the states? I was told that the maximum amount of citalopram is 40 in the USA . The reason I ask is because the citalopram works for about a month then it quits on me then they raise my dosag and it works for about another month. I'm now up to 40 so if it fails me I'm not sure what is going to happen next due to having the maximum dosage. THANKS!

7

Scott,

I thought 40mg was the maximum, but I was told by my psych prescriber you can go up to 60mg, there are variables involved, but most common is 40mg considered a max dose.

FYI

8

Hi Scott

I'm in the UK

My GP said today that 60 mg a day is the maximum dose for Citalopram

But the sides are much more on 50 mg than they were on 40 mg

I was on 40 mg a day for a couple of years and that suited me ok

The jump to 50 has changed everything

And I had serious side affects trying to reduce back down 40 mg

I had to go back to 50 they were so bad

And yet at one time I reduced from 40 to 20

That extra 10 mg has been a game changer

That's why I've been so worried about the change over

Try and cope on the lower dose or switch meds if citalopram isn't working for you

The higher you go the harder it is to reduce

That's my experience Mate .

9

Thanks David I'm wondering if I need to see a psych if I have problems again. The only thing my gp told me was the max I could have is 40 and if that doesn't work that we would start adding new drugs on top of what I'm already taking. It kind makes me nervous.

10

Thanks Lee that really does make alot of sense. I hope I can get this worked out I'm still pretty new to this whole game so the more I learn the better I feel. I really appreciate the all the advice.

11

I also take 15mg of mertazipine at night that can be used as an add on. It was more for sleep and it works but I would like to get off of that eventually. At higher dosage it is effective as an anti-depressant.

12

Hi Lee

i did the same switch last April.  Your dr. Is starting you on a high dose.  I was started at 25mgs for 3-4 weeks then increased and then increased again.  There is possibility you will have side effects.  I say possibility, because we are all different.  In my case I certainly had side effects.  This a med one has to be patient with.  I am thinking of switching back to citalopram.  I find sertraline too hard on my system.  Hope all goes well for you.

lynda

13

Thanks Linda

It's funny my doctor said take 50 mg for a few days

Increase it to 100 if you don't feel right

Advice from doctor to doctor can be so different

And some people report withdrawals and others none

it's a minefield

I guess I will have to give it a go and see what happens might get lucky

Hope your ok now

Lee

14

Hi Lee

The maximum UK dose is definitely 40mg as from 2012.  The news is based on drug safety advice issued in October 2012 by the UK’s drug regulator and was reduced from 60mg to a maximum of 40mg due to problems.

If you're struggling to reduce medication, it's best to do it by 5mg at a time and stay on that for a few weeks for each reduction until you're back down to 40mg.

Your doctor needs to look up this maximum dose.

K x

15

Just to add that Citalopram is 40mg max, so maybe your doctor thinks you're in a different type of SSRI in which case it can be higher.  But if you're on Citalopram it's most definitely 40mg max.

16

Thanks K

I did read it was 40 mg somewhere

I was surprised at my doctor saying 60 mg

I think I might start a reduction

Go a bit slower this time

I rushed it

Going from 50 to 45 was ok

I did that over 2 weeks

When I dropped to 40 I got bad side affects and had to go back up again

I was too hasty to get rid of the side affects

Lesson learned lol

Thanks K

17

Do see your doctor too so he knows you're reducing.  Yes I've reduced my meds by 5mg at a time and had no withdrawal effects at all, unlike once before when I reduced by 10mg a time.  You can't get rid of side effects if increasing or reducing by too big a jump - it'll just make it worse.

Hope it goes ok xx