New brand doesn't seem to be as effective?

[andymac]

Never having taken any course of medication before I'm assuming that Citalopram is Citalopram, whichever brand it's badged under?

I've been using a brand new to me, 'Bristol' for a couple of weeks and it's either not as effective or I need to up the doseage. I've been on 10mg for about 9 months and it seems to do the job. I don't know if it's just coincidence but the recent slide coincides with this brand kicking-in (or not...).

Thanks - Andy

[suzy-sue]

Ive had lots of different brands over 14months and never felt any different ..10mg is a very low dose ,so I would say you probably need a slightly higher dose .ie 20mg ...Sometimes the placebo effect of taking something works well for a while ,but 20mg is really a proved effective starting dose ,,That said some people are fine on 10mg ,but depends on circumstances and how severe syptoms were ..When you get your next perscription get it from the usual place ,if its still not good ,go and see your Dr and discuss upping your dose ...Take care Sue x

[KK77]

My advice would be to stick to the same brand because there can be slight variations in the amount of active ingredient companies use (+ or -) - although there are legal parameters for this. Also there are different inactive ingredients in drugs (E numbers eg) that can cause side effects in sensitive people. I always ask the pharmacist for the same brand.

[Pill-Popper]

I made a thread exactly like this a while ago.

If there is another pharmacy around your area that may sell a different brand of citalopram, i suggest you make that switch! It worked for me!

I usually take a citalopram brand from superdrug, under the name "Generics" which works a charm, but one day i decided to go to another pharmacy called ABC pharmacy and recieved citalopram under a different brand name and felt the changes, was sleeping more, anxiety heightend and just felt bad overall.

So i know where your coming from and i do believe that different brand names may be either more or less effective than eachother as melancholia77 mentioned, could be due to varying amounts of ingredients used, so if you can, try another brand name if you can get hold of it and see how that goes!

EDIT: You also mention "New brand doesn't seem to be as effective?" So you were taking another citalopram brand prior to the new one 'BRISTOL' and it was more effective? If you can get hold of the citalopram you were using before, then that would be better for you too!