Citalopram had one dose - bad reaction - may I stop?

[livewire27]

Hi
I was put on citalopram 40 yesterday by doctor. Don't like the intial reaction and want to stop and explore other options. Is it safe to not take any more? I just had the one dose but I see it has a long half life. Please advise- I cant imagine it could be a problem after one dose.

[venusbluejeans]

Hiya livewire27 and welcome to NMP :welcome:

Why not take a look at our articles on our home page, they contain a wealth of information and are a great starting place for your time on the forum.

I hope you find the as site helpful and informative as I have and that you get the help and support you need here and hope that you meet a few friends along the way :yesyes:

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hi and welcome to NMP :welcome:

You will be fine stopping after one dose. It takes time for your body to adjust to them (5 half lives of the drug for your blood plasma, and 4-6 weeks for the receptor sites to reduce and until them it is just floiding the space with more serotonin) so it won't cause any withdrawal issues for you.

But why has your GP put you on 40mg? If you mean you have gone up from sday 20mg, then stopping can be a problem as you would need to drop back down to 20mg instead (which you could achieve by chopping the pill in half) otherwise going to 0mg would mean possible withdrawal from a cold turkey style method of stopping as opposed to the normal weaning.

If your GP has put you straight onto 40mg from nothing then I think you need to have a chat about that as the normal starting dose is 20mg (some use less) and you would normally progress upwards, if needed, but starting at such a high dose would make onset side effects worse.

[SurfingWaves]

That's why you had a bad reaction, 40mg would be intolerable for most people to start at. It's usually 10 or 20mg as a starting point. There won't be any problem stopping after one dose so don't worry about that. Make sure your doctor starts you on a low dose if you continue the medication route!