Escitalopram not working, should I go for Venlafaxine?

[Georg]

I have been on Citalopram for several years, which did wonders for my anxiety and depression.

I tried stopping them this summer only to have a major setback again, my GP perscribed me Escitalopram instead. It's been 4 months now, with the last month on the max dosage (20mg) and I do not feel any better at all, perhaps my body has come so acustomed to Citalopram that Citalopram/Escitalopram no longer works for me?

I have made an appointment with my GP come thursday, we agreed upon if I felt no better by then I would try another drug. We talked about Venlafaxine and Zoloft also known as Sertraline and Lustral.

I hear great things about Effexor when it comes to treating Anxiety, which is my main problem right now, I have alot of chest pains and an intense fear of dying/feeling like I am dying.

I really want things to improve fast, as I have been away from work for 4 months now and I really need to get back soon.

But I am scared of the horrible whitdrawal effects described by this drug.
Maybe I should swap to Zoloft instead, at least then I would not need to taper off Escitalopram first as they are both SSRI's, whereas Venlafaxine is an SSRN?

I am very unsure what to do. My wife has gotten some nice results with her swap from Escitalopram over to Zoloft, so I am kind of willing to give that a go. Perhaps if that does not work then I should go for Venlafaxine?

Anyone had any experiences swapping between these drugs?

Any replies would be helpful, I could do with some reassurance by now ;)

Regards Georg, wishing you good mental health.

[KK77]

It's strange that your doctor never put you back on citalopram rather than escitalopram (although technically they are the same drug). I've been on all the meds you mention except venlafaxine. It's really trial and error but as citalopram worked for you in the past, I would have thought trying that again before you go onto the other meds would make more sense. Although they say that cit and escit are technically the same, people seem to have different experiences on these drugs. The SEs of sertraline were harsher for me than cit. And I think it's wise to leave a few days drug-free before you swap over to get the drug out of your system to minimise any interactions (and I would taper in any case). But see what your doctor suggests. Hope it works out well for you.

[Kagey]

ive took a lot of different ssri , and my experience of effexor was......ill never take them again ever,the 1st 1 made me mentally exhausted and felt worse than ive ever done.....i know we are all different but i stuck them out for 3 months and my libido dissapeared totally, and i never got any better , id try the zoloft first . Good luck

[Betsie]

Hi Georg -I am on citalopram for the second time in my life due to anxiety. Have been taking it for 4 weeks now and do feel a slight improvement. I have never had to change from one medication to another but I do know that my daughter has been on several different medications, including Citalopram, and none of them helped her until she was put on Venlaflaxine - this seems to be the only drug that works for her so maybe it would work for you too. Good luck!

[JT69]

Hi Georg...I previously took citalopram for a number of years and it was sucessfull. I weaned off it Jan 09 and crashed in October 09. Gp prescribed them again and even took me right up to 40mg (previously only ever been up to 30mg) unfortunately they didnt work for me this time, so I had to change. I take mirtazipine it has been sucessfull for me, we did discuss venlaflaxine but it could cause fast heart beat and raised bp in some people so he advised against it. Having said all that we are all different so you may be o.k on it.

I too had to take almost 5 months off work due to the change in meds etc but thankfully after a month of the new meds was able to return and this is my second week back.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do...hope you feel better soon.

Jo.