Seroxat to Citalopram?

Hi there,
Has anyone here managed to switch from seroxat to citalopram? I've recently began trying to switch to Citalopram after bing on 20 mg Seroxat for about 9 or 10 years. The thing is, my dr says the guidelines state it's fine to just stop seroxat and start the citalopram. He says the citalopram will do the same job but if I get seroxat withdrawal, I should take 40mg citalopram instead of 20mg. However, I then have my CBT therapist telling me that he is on citalopram himself and that he switched to it by starting with a low dose and slowely working up.....does anybody know what they're talking about? lol I did try switching using my Dr's method but the 40mg blew my head off and I couldn't even keep my eyes open and the rage and anger in me was getting scary. So I reverted to my seroxat again as it's the only thing I feel remotely stable on. I returned to the dr who said I should try to keep away from the seroxat and really go for it with the citalopram as it can make you feel worse before you feel better. So I'm now heading for my third week of having citalopram daily, only I've had to listen to my body and do my own thing. I know stopping seroxat totally was affecting me & I'd read that you can cross taper with a low does of seroxat and a higher dose of citalopram which should support me while the citalopram is getting into my system. I'd hoped that once I got through the first couple of weeks & the citalopram began to work properly, it would be easier to drop the seroxat. My therapist said citalopram can make you extemely angry in the first couple of weeks and boy he was right. I was SAVAGE. And then I also started feeling familiar seroxat withdrawal symptoms so, I upped my citalopram to 30mg and boy did I feel much better for about 4 days. I was convinced I must've gotten past the worst as they say it takes around 2 weeks for it to work properly. I was so confident that I dropped the seroxat from 10mg to 8 mg. Seemed fine until the evening of the 2nd day & it hit me again. I know the citalopram is doing 'something' to dim the effects but gee...if I'm not gonna be able to feel ok on citalopram without some seroxat I may aswell just go back to the seroxat before the citalopram gets into my system (I don't want to have TWO meds giving me withdrawal affects, ONE is bad enough lol). It's so difficult to know which pill is responsible for what though....it could all be the citalopram getting into my system....or a mixture of one going in and the other coming out? Another Dr I saw last week said if I've only been taking around 7 to 10 mg of seroxat for two weeks then that's 'nothing' and will be having little affect on anything, so I should just stop it. However, my argument is: if it's doing 'nothing' then how come when I start to feel very bad and I take the 10mg seroxat, I feel better again?
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The Seroxat hasn't been a complete bad boy for me. It gave me my life back and worked for 10 years....until February of this year when it started doing horrendous things (to the point where I was convinced I'd been given a different drug). After much trial and error, I stabilised by dropping to 12.5 mg (anything more felt too much & gave me spasms & extreme anxiety. Anything less than 12mg gave me withdrawal symptoms. It was literally as if my body suddenly forced me to drop my dose.) I still didn't feel as stable as I had been before though (when the 20mg worked & didn't turn me into a jittering jelly, curled up in a corner) so I agreed to switch to citalopram (coming off of meds is not an option for me, I've had anxiety issues for as long as I can remember but it became worse during my teens and I wasted 8 years without meds, unable to function at all, hiding away from society with severe anxiety, trying every other form of 'help' available with no benefit. Life's too short). In some ways the citalopram feels better because it helps my anxiety even more than the seroxat did....I just can't deal with these anger and depression bursts and not knowing how I will be one day to the next. It's been going on far too long now, since Feb. I want my life back, even if it means surviving on my little 12.5mg of seroxat.

I switched from Seroxat 20mg (had been on it for 14 years and it saved my life too but, like yourself, unfortunately stopped working) to escitalopram in June last year. My psychiatrist cross tapered me. So I was taking 10mg Seroxat in liquid form and 5mg escitalopram at the same time for a week. Then completely off the seroxat and onto 10mg escitalopram after that. I had no significant problems. This was done whilst I was in a psychiatric ward. 10mg escitalopram is kinda the equivalent of 20mg citalopram. I was also on diazepam 5mg three time a day to help with increased anxiety and initial insomnia caused by the escitalopram. These initial side effect wore off after a few weeks.

Best of luck. :flowers:

Thank you for that, it's helpful and nice to hear a success story :) My Dr advised me to keep away from these kinda forums because all the horror stories were making me feel even worse :winks: But sometimes, when one is desperate and is being told conflicting things by different Drs, it seems the only way to get useful advice. It's good to hear something positive :) I'm glad you managed to switch. I feel I could use diazipam to support me in the transition but I know my doc won't give me that.

My best friend has been on SSRI's for a long time and has successfully switched betwen 3 different kinds....straight away with no problems. I sure wish I was more like her hehe.

You're welcome.

I know what you mean. You have to learn to "read between the lines" kinda thing.

Sometimes other patients personal experiences can be really helpful.

Take Care. x

Wasn't going to mention this but bizarrely found one of your previous threads.

I am CONVINCED the formula of Seroxat was changed when they changed the packaging as well. It was shortly after this that it stopped working for me. I thought I was being paranoid and it was just coincidence but the timing makes sense.

Weird! :shrug:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by haz

Wasn't going to mention this but bizarrely found one of your previous threads.

I am CONVINCED the formula of Seroxat was changed when they changed the packaging as well. It was shortly after this that it stopped working for me. I thought I was being paranoid and it was just coincidence but the timing makes sense.

Weird! :shrug:

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that is interesting to hear. I remember I had a bad two of three weeks which happened when I began a new batch that had the new packaging....this was Christmas before last. Luckily I stabilised and was fine for just over a year...until Feb of this year. No new packaging this time, just a new batch....it does make me wonder about duff batches, although they really should be more careful, it's too dangerous not to get it right. I'm not sure if it stopped working for me....it simply 'attacked me' doing things I'd never had even before taking it. An allergic reaction perhaps, this can happen when you've been on it ages.

Anyway, I hope you are ok now?

Thanks. I've been on Sertraline for about just over 3 months now but I'm not as good as when I was on Seroxat. Hopefully I will be though. :) Got my CBT assessment tomorrow so looking forward to starting that.

Take Care. :hugs:

Good luck with the CBT Haz. I've started that again but my therapist says I really need to stabilise on meds first as I can't focus whilst tapering is forcing my brain to do the mamba :D