15 years on Citalopram- tolerance?

[jonboyleeds]

I have taken Citalopram for 15 years now following a period of anxiety.

During that period all it took was 10mg to be effective.

I took it for a year or so, came off then went back on it.

My anxiety flares up directly as a result of stress, and since being back on it there have been periods where the Citalopram has not stopped periods of intense anxiety. I have been up to 70mg on it before.

I'm currently experiencing shocking anxiety as a result of a build up of stress over 18 months or so.

Question is, has anyone else been on it this long and found that it can become ineffective?

I'm torn between carrying on or seeing if something else will work better though I'm not too keen on tapering down to 20mg!

[wcs2222]

Hello.
I have been on-and-off Citalopram 20mg a few times for anxiety over the last 20 years. Most recently, I went off 1 1/2 years ago (tapering over 3 months) and went back on 3 1/2 months ago. At that time, my GP told me that my brain receptors may now be desensitized and that Cit may no longer work for me. Fortunately, Cit did kick in after 10 weeks and I have a complete recovery during the last 3 weeks.

If you are on a high dosage (40mg is the "normal" maximum dosage), then Cit may no longer be working for you and it may be time to switch. My GP had suggested a newer drug Pristiq/Desvenlafaxine if Cit did not work. A month ago, I participated in an experimental study that performs genetic testing of my saliva and cheek cells against a number of SSRI's/SNRI's to rank which would likely work. The result was that Pristiq came back best, but Cit was still okay. Now I know that, if Cit stops working for me in the future, I should switch to Pristiq.

Good luck.