Help! Docs prescribed 4x too much! Awful side effects/withdrawal after 3 days

[daisy9]

Hi guys...

I wanted to see what you all made of this: I used to take Citalopram last year, I guess I was on it for about a year and was up to 40mg. I stupidly stopped taking it with no warning... and weirdly no side effects.

Fast-forward to last Thursday and I'm back at the docs as the anxiety is starting to get a hold of me again. Doc accidentally prescribes me 40mg a day AND 40mg propranolol.

Friday - morning I take both and immediately feel faint, going to black out and be sick. Spend the day in bed - presuming it's the propranolol.

Saturday - I take the 40mg Citalopram again. But the side effects worsen. I feel out of body, lights are really bright, tightening feeling in my stomach, and I'm fainting... I call 111 (NHS non-emergency) and they tell me my doctor has prescribed me way too much to start with, and to split the pill into 4 so I only take 10mg!

Sunday - leave it til the evening to take 10mg... feeling much better. Then all of a sudden I wake up at 3am with heart palpitations, whole body shaking and feeling like I'm about to black out... Emergency doctor calls and tells me to not take any more Citalopram, and to go straight to A&E if i have more heart palpitations as I may need an ECG...

The rest of the week I have been feeling faint, nauseous, and really panicky. I managed to go back to work yesterday for the afternoon and felt a lot better - but still feeling really dizzy - like my eyesight was affected?

Went back to my doctor and she basically apologises and says she didn't mean to give me 40mg straight away - and I must be feeling rough... She then re-prescribes me with 10mg to take next week.

I definitely don't want to try it again... but these hideous side effects/withdrawal are still here - how long will it be before they go?!

[panic_down_under]

I stupidly stopped taking it with no warning... and weirdly no side effects.

You were very lucky. I urge you not to test fate again.

I definitely don't want to try it again... but these hideous side effects/withdrawal are still here - how long will it be before they go?!

If you took the last dose on Sunday then there would, at most, only be a very tiny amount of the drug still in your system. Not enough to still be driving the symptoms. However, the psychological effects can linger for much longer.

I appreciate your reluctance to begin taking citalopram again given your experience, but it wasn't the real problem, your doctor's incompetence was. I'd be waving her goodbye, not the med. Perhaps ease back onto it by taking only 5mg for a couple of days to build some confidence.