Just been prescribed Sertraline after being on citalapram, bit worried

[Joshb]

HI,
I just been prescribed 50mg of sertraline after being on citalapram 20mg since the beginning of July. The citalapram seemed to work at first but have been suffering bad insomnia and racing thoughts and bad general anxiety, so the doc suggested i change to sertraline. He said just stop the citalapram and take the Sertraline the next day.

I am concerned about having to again go through all the freakishness you have when you start taking ssri, also I am wondering if they will help with the insomnia and anxiety

any thoughts greatly appreciated

cheers
Josh

[southey]

I did the exact same swap a while back. I also stopped the Cit one day and started the Sert the next.

Apart from some quite mild dizziness and feeling really tired after the first new dose, which could have been from working hard, the transition was unremarkable and was certainly nothing like starting an SSRI for the first time!

Steve.

[AuntieMoosie]

Don't worry, you'll be fine

I did the same swap last year, the only thing I had was a little raise in my anxiety for the first few days, but my GP had given my some very low dose diazepam to help me through, I only needed the diazepam for the first 2 days, after that, I was fine

I have found Sertraline to be much more beneficial to me than Citalopram ever was, but we're all different

[Joshb]

Thank you so much for the replies. could you tell me in how the sirtrlaine helped in ways that the citalapram did not? I just took my last citalapram today, thanks for any thoughts!

Josh

[southey]

I came off the Cit' because although it worked very well for my Anxiety, it didn't help with my depression. It seemed to leave me sort of dead inside, emotionless but miserable.

The Sert' seems to have sorted this out and I'm feeling the best I have felt for decades, although I have started to look after myself more and my diet and exercise have improved so maybe it is a combination of both?

Steve.

[Joshb]

Thanks for the reply Steve I hope Auntie Moosey can also let me know her reasons too.

Since July i have completey changed my diet and i exercise regularly now but it hasnt helped, so I am thinking the citalapram is actually holding me back..

I really appreciate you taking the time to reply,

Josh

[AuntieMoosie]

I came off the Cit' because although it worked very well for my Anxiety, it didn't help with my depression. It seemed to leave me sort of dead inside, emotionless but miserable.

The Sert' seems to have sorted this out and I'm feeling the best I have felt for decades, although I have started to look after myself more and my diet and exercise have improved so maybe it is a combination of both?

Steve.

I'm exactly the same as Steve!

Citalopram left me emotionally dead! and I didn't like that at all.

I'm a wee bit different though, cos I didn't find Citalopram as helpful for my anxiety as I'm now finding Sertraline, but I don't think it did much for my depression either, I think it kind of kept me at a level, but it failed to progress me any further.

I'm feeling much more alert, alive and responsive since being on the Sertraline.

I totally agree that what we eat and how much we sleep has a heck of a lot to do with it too, as Steve has said, it's really a combination of a lot of things.

[Joshb]

thanks you both so much for taking the time to respond to my worries. For me seemed Citalapram work for about 5 weeks at 10mg, then i felt bad again, so the doc upped it to 20mg which again worked for about 5 weeks but i seemed to stop being able to sleep and the anxiety and returned. I am hoping that changing to 50mg of sertraline will give me my sleep back as i so badly miss it!

last thing. I just wondered what dosage of citalapram you went to and what dose of sirtraline.

many thanks I will do the switch today

Josh

edit: i cut the 50mg of sertraline in half as i was concerned about side effects.....

[southey]

I found that 20mg of Cit' worked well for Anxiety but went to 30mg hoping for an improvement in mood. It never happened and I was loath to go to the max dose of 40mg, not because of sides as I never had any except for the lack of emotions, but because I was still miserable.

I asked my Doc' to swap my meds and asked for Wellbutrin, a popular US anti-depressant that works on Dopamine instead of Serotonin but found this was not available in the UK for this use. It is prescribed here for quitting smoking though!

I then enquired about my other two drugs I had researched, Venlafaxine and Sertraline and my Doc' wasn't too keen on the Ven' so I got the Sert'.

I started the Sert' at 50mg which soon seemed to be lifting my mood as well as continuing to keep the Anxiety at bay. I asked for a dosage increase to see if things would improve further and 100mg seems to work well for me.

I have not gone past this dose as things are going well and will keep a rise in reserve for future needs?

Steve

[AuntieMoosie]

Well I was on 60mgs of Citalopram, which was the then, maximum dose, that has now been reduced to 40mgs being the new maximum.

I was started on Sertraline at the same time as being brought off of Citalopram.

I started on 50mgs, but did exactly as you're doing by cutting the tablet in half and letting my body slowly adjust to the change.

I'm now on 100mgs of Sertraline and I'm finding that I'm doing well on that dose