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Mental Health (Expert Forum)
Switching between SSRI's
Answered by
Roger Gould, M.D. - Mental Health, Wellness
Questions posted in the Mental Health forum are being answered by Dr. Roger L. Gould, author of the Mastering Stress and Depression program and affiliated with the UCLA. Department of Psychiatry. Topics covered include anger, attention deficit disorder (ADD), bipolar disorder, dementia, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), learning disabilities, memory, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic, personality disorders, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, stress, transitions, and work problems.
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Switching between SSRI's
by JohnnyW, Nov 14, 2002 12:00AM
Hi! I hope you will be able to help me! I have been taking a 50mg dosage of Sertraline for the past 6 weeks. I had quite a few side-effects while taking it (tremors, panic, nausea and aggitation) so I asked my doctor if I could change SSRI's. He agreed and prescribed me 20 mg Citalopram instead.
I was extremely pleased with this as both my sister and my father have been prescribed this in the past and had great results with no side-effects.
Having read on the internet about possible withdrawal symptoms from SSRI's (escpecially, it seems, Sertraline) I decided to "taper" myself off. The problem is: I had no idea how long people were actually supposed to do this (I have been halving my dosage every two days!). I have now stopped taking it altogether and have found myself left very irritable. I have also just had a very long journey (an 11 hour flight with a 13 hour stopover in a foreign airport) and suspect that part of my irritability is also related to this.
I was wondering though, when is the earliest I might be able to start my course of citalopram? As I said I have been halving my dosage every other day and last one I took was 12mg two days ago.
My doctor said to wait 7 days between starting my new course and stopping my last one, but he also didn't warn me about potential side-effects of stopping, so I'm not sure he's completely "up-to-date" with things :)
Thanks for any help! (Long message, sorry!)
~ John
I was extremely pleased with this as both my sister and my father have been prescribed this in the past and had great results with no side-effects.
Having read on the internet about possible withdrawal symptoms from SSRI's (escpecially, it seems, Sertraline) I decided to "taper" myself off. The problem is: I had no idea how long people were actually supposed to do this (I have been halving my dosage every two days!). I have now stopped taking it altogether and have found myself left very irritable. I have also just had a very long journey (an 11 hour flight with a 13 hour stopover in a foreign airport) and suspect that part of my irritability is also related to this.
I was wondering though, when is the earliest I might be able to start my course of citalopram? As I said I have been halving my dosage every other day and last one I took was 12mg two days ago.
My doctor said to wait 7 days between starting my new course and stopping my last one, but he also didn't warn me about potential side-effects of stopping, so I'm not sure he's completely "up-to-date" with things :)
Thanks for any help! (Long message, sorry!)
~ John
Doctor's Answer
by Roger Gould, M.D., Nov 15, 2002 12:00AM
, Nov 15, 2002 12:00AM
Both of these medications are from the same family and usually and I am not aware of any reason to have a long period in between. That is true for another class of antidepressant medications, but possibly your doctor has something else in mind. If he does not, you should be able to start right away.
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Since he never mentioned any possible withdrawal effects I can only presume he is unaware of them, and thus also unaware of the benefits (ie no withdrawal symptoms) of changing SSRI's immediately.
Thanks again,
~ John