Has anyone here been on an SSRI for a long time? Has it really helped?

[TillySm]

Hello,

I have now been on prozac for 1 week and I am excited about feeling the results soon.

I have a feeling I am going to have to be on them for a long time.

I just wanted to ask - what is the longest time anyone here has been on SSRI? Anyone out there?!

Has it really helped?

[haz]

I have seen on various different meds for anxiety/depression but I was on Seroxat for 14 years and it really helped but then stopped working.

Good Luck with the Prozac. :)

[TillySm]

I'm just going to cut to the chase here I know people might say I am scaremongering like usually happens but this worries me quite a bit.

I am certainly not stopping my prozac over this but i would love to know the truth in case I need anti-Atherosclerosis meds to counteract any possible effect.

I read a study saying that the carotid artery in the neck is thickened by 40 microns a year on ssri instead of 10 microns per year. More study needs to be done to confirm this but I just want to know for sure because I don't want a cardiac event in 20 years etc.

This is the study "http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110402163856.htm"

I have been on them for 10 years before (but am just starting prozac again) and would like to know if this is the case because if it is - one should also be on a drug that clears arteries to counteract the effect (there are many drugs that can reverse thickened arteries).

thoughts? And don't flame me because we all have a right to know such things.

[Pipkin]

Hi there,

I'm not going to flame you but just give you a few observations:

There are many things that can have a negative health impact, including some meds, that if we worried about them all, we'd be too afraid to do anything. Do you remember the egg salmonella scare in the 80s? If we'd all taken that to heart, we'd either not be eating eggs any more or would have caught food poisoning as a result. I don't know anyone who falls into one of these categories. There was undoubtedly some truth in this but only in a very small minority.

I can guarantee that if you look hard enough, you'll find other studies that state a plethora of benefits of SSRIs and probably some which directly contradict this one.

A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. These studies need to be taken in context and, as I'm no expert, I have to look to medical professionals to guide me. I'm not saying they're always right or that I have blind faith, but they're better placed to help me recover than I am on my own reading random studies and doing my own secondary research on the Internet.

I think many of us accept that the only way to beat anxiety is through self-determination and a lot of hard work, and that meds are rarely a long-term solution. However, they clearly have a role to play for some people and, if you are accused of scaremongering, it's only because people have enough to deal with already and having information pointed out that can easily be taken out of context is not helpful to the majority of sufferers on here.

Take care

Pip

[LAURA48]

Hi - I was Prozac 20mg for 15 years and worked very well - had the odd blip - it stopped working in October - had a major upset. It did not work that quickly with me - I found after around 8 to 12 weeks I felt much better.

I tried it again in February and it did not work second time around.

Found it to be a marvellous drug though.

[grotbags]

I took an SSRI for just 8 months. It started working after 2 months, and the first few weeks/couple of months were pretty unpleasant as I felt quite ill.

I found this SSRI - Cipralex at a low dose - to be very effective, which surprised me as I had taken Dosulepin for the previous 18 months or so with no noticable benefits. It was the side effects that forced me off the Cipralex though. It worked well but came with a price. If I hadn't had so many side effects I'd simply have stayed on it I think.

[BobbyDog]

I took Citalopram for over 10 years and it was the best that I have felt since I started suffering from anxiety, only stopped taking because I have insomnia and they didn't help.

[UrbanMark]

Hi there,

I've been on Citalopram for nearly three years.

After living with anxiety and depression for 19 years it was a godsend.
I've had the best two years of my life so far, my anxiety is reduced and I'm in no way depressed. It took about three to four weeks for the drug to kick in and there are a few bad spells during that first phase, but it really is worth it.

When taking these meds it must be stressed that you increase/decrease the dosage VERY SLOWLY.

Take care x