Increased dosage

[soulcrosses]

Hi guys! I won't ramble too much, but.. I've been taking Citalopram for a few months now. Before I went to the doctor for a diagnosis I was genuinely mid-break down. Anyway, he prescribed me 30mg straight away and as I'd never been on any form of medication before, I was very ill for the first week. When my body had adjusted to them, I had heightened anxiety for a couple of days and then for a month I was feeling so much better. My anxiety was still very much present, but I had little spurts of happiness every so often which really gave me something to strive for! Anyway, for the last few weeks I've been slowly reverting back to my original ways (sleeping in my car, crying a lot, avoiding possible social situations, etc - all irrationally). Consequently, my depression has started to creep it's way back in, I started to feel run down and feared that I'd relapse completely. Anyway, back to my question.. I went back to the Doctor today and he increased my dose by 10mg, which means that as of tomorrow, I'll be taking 40mg a day. I just wanted to know if anybody else has experienced any form of relapse and whether or not an increased dosage helped you or not? Also, although its unlikely as its quite small and my body is already used to them, but did anyone experience any side effects too? I really hope this works :(

[Ingenious]

Yes I can relate to that experience. I started on 10mg then went to 20mg, I wasn't too bad for a while but then started to feel a bit crap. So then I went up to 30mg. That made me feel OK - quite stable - for a while (a month or so) and for a longer period than when I was on 20mg. Then I started to slip again. So the dose went up to 40mg. Although I did feel better to start with, I also became quite dulled and foggy at 40mg, I knew that at 40mg it was no longer working, so when I started to slip again my GP agreed with me that we were flogging a dead horse and a medication change was in order rather than try 50mg.

I had quite bad side effects at the start and some effects with each dose increase but I don't recall having all that many problems going from 30mg to 40mg - I have just looked back in my mood diary and I haven't actually written anything negative at all when I increased to 40mg so I can't have been too bad.

I think what will happen next for you will show whether this medication is working or not. A lot of people do find good success at 40mg, even after lower doses didn't show promise, so do keep an open mind.

However if 40mg doesn't work out, don't panic. There are many other medications to try including ones which are totally different - I switched to Mirtazapine for example and have done really well on it.