Printable View
Anyone else experience a drop in heart rate - I am normally between 50-60 BPM
About 2 hours after I take 10mg my heart rate drops into the 40s, I spoke to the doc and he wanted to change me to something else as a precaution but I wanted to give this time to work and said well as long as he is happy I'll carry on. We agreed to monitor it.
I feel like I am coming up on a certain Class A drug when I take this stuff, get all the classic signs. Its very odd.
One of serotonin's many functions in the body is mediating blood vessel tone, constriction and dilation, and serotonergic ADs may affect this function including by dilating blood vessels which could account for the slowing heart rate (some get the opposite including elevated bpm). It probably won't last.
Provided you're not having problems with orthostatic/postural hypotension there probably isn't any need to switch. The next SSRI may well do the same for a while. Plus, cardiologists are increasing coming to the view that the ideal adult resting heart rate should be 50-70bpm, not the 60-100 that has long been considered normal.
Fwiw, I'm on a highish dose of a BP med to compensate for the removal of half a lung and my resting heart rate is usually between 47-50bpm. It hasn't caused me any issues for 15 years.
cheers - my blood pressure at the moment is around 116/75 so quite normal on that front :)
I also asked doc if I can take esomeprazone, he said yes but I've read quite few articles online saying no?
Esomeprazole will slow the rate at which citalopram (and many other meds) is metabolised so increasing plasma levels a bit. You'll get a little more bang for buck out of 20mg. This needs to be considered when deciding on dose, but isn't a reason to not take one of them. Such interactions are common and is a primary reason medications must to be prescribed by doctors.