First day citalopram

[Amaajovich]

Thankyou for replying to my post. I'm on my second day now. Spent all day yesterday feeling very sick. Another wierd side effect I have noticed which came more or less an hour or two after taking my first dose is a feeling of my head and ears being 'full'. I have slight ringing in m ears and the only way I can describe the feeling is a fuzzy full feeling in them. It's not too bad but the ringing does annoy me at night when I'm trying to relax and sleep I find it increases my anxiety a lot! I just tried taking deep breaths and calming myself but it does make me worried as iv had this sound in my ears 24 hours now and it's not gone. Has anyone got any good tips in how to calm myself when I feel panic or anxiety coming on? I know I have a long way to go before my citalopram start to work so really could do with coping strategies to help me till then. Any ideas are welcome..👍x

[panic_down_under]

It's not too bad but the ringing does annoy me at night when I'm trying to relax and sleep I find it increases my anxiety a lot! I just tried taking deep breaths and calming myself but it does make me worried as iv had this sound in my ears 24 hours now and it's not gone.

Ringing in the ears, tinnitus, isn't an infrequent initial side-effects of all ADs, indeed of many medications generally, but it does occur (SSRIs are also been prescribed to treat tinnitus). It is usually short-lived, but can linger for some. If it continues for more than a few days I suggest you contact your GP for advice. Taking one of the benzodiazepines for a couple of days may stop the ringing.

Another option would be to switch to the almost identical AD escitalopram. Citalopram is made up of two isomers, the 'S' form of citalopram, i.e. escitalopram, which is the active component, and a 'R' mirror image form which is a poorer fit biologically and so is mostly inactive. Escitalopram is more refined and only contains the 'S' isomer. This relatively small difference can produce differing side-effects so it is often worth switching from one to the other to side step a persistent problem.