Increasing Citalopram Dosage???

[Blossom4538]

Hi all,

I am on 20mg of Citalopram at the moment and have been for 6 months. I guess I felt a little calmer and better after the first 12 weeks where I felt quite tired and grotty. I still feel tired but am starting to get very low again. I’m considering mentioning to GP but scared about increasing - I don’t want awful side effects or to become too zombie like, also concerned about weaning off eventually. I don’t know what to do. Going through a tough period in personal life and struggling through each day/week at mo x

Hi, I also take citalopram. I have been on anything between 10mg and 40mg. My GP has always been very good at letting me increase/decrease as needed. You can buy some pill cutters and increase very gradually if you want to. Eg get your GP to prescribe you a 10mg tablet (don’t think they do 5mg), and cut in half to increase to 25mg. I would advise your GP if any changes but really only you know what is and isn’t working for you. It may take longer to wean off if your dosage is higher, but then you would still need to wean off a dose even if you feel it isn’t doing enough if that makes sense. Hang in there and trust your body

I've just dropped back to 20mg and it was easy. I was same as you, my symptoms increase after being fine on 20mg. Dr was happy to increase to 30mg short term, he gave me 2 months supply of an extra 10mg. What I did find was that taking the 30mg at the one time (I take in the morning) was too much and I felt very tired at work. I started taking my 10mg at 3pm when I got in for work and that did the trick, it really helped me get back on an even keel and my sleep improved. I started weaning off my taking the 10mg every second day and I haven't bothered with them for a couple of days and I've been absolutely fine.

My gp initially offered propranolol which I've used before with success but I struggle with one of the side effects, he then gave me another tablet for a week, I think Buspirone but it didn't help. It was only after this he was happy to increase the citalopram. His reason being to make sure the Citalopram was fully up to speed in my system and not still to increase in effectiveness as I had only been on it around 10 - 12 weeks.

I've been on citalopram for a long time for anxiety. I requested to increase from 20mg to 40mg about a year ago. It doesn't make me zombified and in fact allows me to get on with running my business. If you feel you're not coping speak your GP :-)

Should add I was able to decrease as I finished a brilliant CBT course over the phone with Living Life. It's an NHS self referral program and you get 6 hour long sessions, if you are suitable. This really made a massive difference to my mental health and I got to the bottom of my issues and now have a mental tool box of coping strategies. I'm in Scotland but don't think it's region specific, worth a google.