Citalopram Side Effects - Hot & Cold Flushes

[Clazzy]

Hi

My mam has started taking citalopram nearly 4 weeks ago. She was previously on mirtazapine. Since she has changed meds she's suffering from really bad anxiety, hot and cold flushes, loss of appetite etc, alot of the symptoms that have previously been described on here. I would really like advise on how long these symptoms will last, I've read it takes longer to work for anxiety than depression. She's convinced herself that something is seriously wrong, despite not having any of these symptoms before changing the meds. She's lost the ability to think rationally due to the increased anxiety.

Any advise would be welcome.

Thanks

Claire

[Masa]

Hi Claire,

I had the same symptoms as your mum and the 'cold flushes' were the worst one and the one I was scared of. I feel like my whole body gets flushed with some icy cold feeling from head to toe. I hated these at the beginning, but got used to them now. For me they were the worst in the first 4 weeks. After that they slowed down from having one every day, to one every other day etc. I've been on Citalopram for 14 weeks now and the last one of the 'cold flushes' happened last week which was 4 weeks from the one before that. Not sure if I explained myself properly here, but what I'm trying to say is they do slow down. I think they are anxiety attacks but they just manifest in a different way and have learned to deal with them.

I was also very ill with all other side effects for the first couple of weeks, but things do settle down and one thing I would say is that Citalopram takes a long time to work!

I hope your mum gets better soon!