Dizzy feeling but not traditional...

[Nickc25]

Hi

I am on 40mg of Citalopram and about a week or so ago, I stopped taking them purely because of the side effects. I do not get many if any Citalopram side effects from the brand by "Bristol Laboratories" but the others give me side effects ranging from sexual to spots all over my body. The pharmacies in my area have suddenly stopped stocking that brand and they know that it is my preferred brand as this one pharmacy deals with and deals with all my other medication but sometimes I have to go to others if they don't have the Bristol labs ones, but the others don't have them anymore.

I put up with the others for about 4 months and now they are mixing two brands together (2x20mg) the side effects were really bad so about 8 days ago I just stopped taking them, all my spots are gone etc now.

I realise I should have just taken them slowly down and I know I need to take them because they actually help so please don't have a go at me for that, I know I should continue taking them but I wanted a few weeks break from the spots and other crap.

So now over the past week or so I have this weird feeling of feeling dizzy but not in the traditional way where you would see the room going in circles and feel unbalanced etc. it kind of feels like a tingling type sensation at the back of my head, kind of between my ears, it's really hard to explain.

I am just wondering if this is because of coming off the Citalolpram? I'm going to go back on it tonight, do I need to start off with 20mg again and after a week or so go back to the 40mgs?

I know it is chemically out of my system now but I prefer the side effects to this weird dizzy type feeling, sorry I can't explain it very well!!

[Marty_67]

40mg is a high dose and in fact the highest dose recommended by my GP - hence the side effects. I went straight on at 40mg but I had fairly recently come off 20mg. I still got hit with lots of side effects inc shaking, sleep, libido, dizziness, nausea and 5 weeks in some of them are still with me. It's been a battle, the latest side effect (incredibly) is anxiety which I hope will go away soon.

Cit is a bit of a marathon. You don't get instant results and you have to battle on against the side effects for about 6-8 weeks until things settle down.

I would certainly consider a lower dose to let your body get used to it.

Marty

---------- Post added at 19:54 ---------- Previous post was at 19:52 ----------

By the way, spots is a new one on me so maybe you should talk to the GP about an alternative med?

[TooMuchToLiveFor]

I would definitely chalk it up to discontinuation syndrome.

[Marty_67]

Also my GP did not recommend just stopping Cit and you have to phase yourself of it.

[Daisy-chains]

some people get on better with some brands better than others, are the Bristol lab' ones the calendar pack,?

[Nickc25]

40mg is a high dose and in fact the highest dose recommended by my GP - hence the side effects. I went straight on at 40mg but I had fairly recently come off 20mg. I still got hit with lots of side effects inc shaking, sleep, libido, dizziness, nausea and 5 weeks in some of them are still with me. It's been a battle, the latest side effect (incredibly) is anxiety which I hope will go away soon.

Cit is a bit of a marathon. You don't get instant results and you have to battle on against the side effects for about 6-8 weeks until things settle down.

I would certainly consider a lower dose to let your body get used to it.

Marty

---------- Post added at 19:54 ---------- Previous post was at 19:52 ----------

By the way, spots is a new one on me so maybe you should talk to the GP about an alternative med?

some people get on better with some brands better than others, are the Bristol lab' ones the calendar pack,?

I've been on them for 3 years, last August I was put on 40mg and I've mainly always had the Bristol Labs brand but over the past 6-7 months I have had several different brands, all causing different side effects, the Sandoz one is the worst for me, I get none of this on the Bristol brand.

I'm told by the pharmacy that even though the active ingredient is the same, there may be different inactive ingredients, different coatings etc and add the fact that everyone reacts differently to the same medications she can see why there will be a possibility of different side effects.

The pharmacist that made sure that I had the Bristol Labs has now left, so I've been getting different brands and as I get my medication delivered to me, there is pretty much nothing I can do about it. So that's why I stopped taking them because I had spots all over my body, literally - the GP gave me antibiotics for them and tried differing things to get rid of them. Then the month later I had a Bristol labs pack and the spots went! It was like a 13 year old with achne but I had it all down my chest, back, arms and on my legs too - but not on my face, weird!

So I stopped taking them and I was having those dizzy type things, thanks for the replies, I went back on them last night but I'll take 20mg for a week before going back to my 40mg dose, the dizzy type feelings have already gone so that was pretty quick!!

[Daisy-chains]

You can actually ask for a specific brand or one with a calendar pack, I don't like the sandos brand either. Pharmacy deliveries can receive various brands at any one time so it may be possible, if you give the pharmacist a call and explain your situation, he/she could do something about it if sympathetic enough.

[Nickc25]

You can actually ask for a specific brand or one with a calendar pack, I don't like the sandos brand either. Pharmacy deliveries can receive various brands at any one time so it may be possible, if you give the pharmacist a call and explain your situation, he/she could do something about it if sympathetic enough.

Thanks for the reply. The pharmacist specifically ordered the Bristol Labs for me every month with no issues but since he retired, this has stopped happening :(

I've tried to explain to her but she doesn't believe me, even though I showed her the evidence, a few months ago I stopped taking them for nearly a month and my depression got so bad I sat on my bed with a kitchen knife thinking of just giving up.

The tablets do really help but the different reactions I get from the different brands is crazy, surely a pharmacist should know that this can happen with different coatings or the different way it's made? The active ingredient is the same she keeps telling me and I obviously know that but it's something in the inactive ingredient that causes the different reactions to it. I'm going to go to the GP tomorrow to ask if they can specify that brand for me, the other doctor said no last time and wouldn't do a handwritten script because that would have worked - I understand the pharmacy's position too, they will buy whatever the cheapest brand is :(