Plan for coming off 40mg Citalopram

[mummmypirate]

Hi mums, after 9 months I feel ready to wean myself of Citalopram. It's been great - I'm much better (had PND) - and am keen to start TTC. I'm doing this in full consultation with GP and have cut down to 30mg for past week with no ill-effects. Anyone with advice about timescale to get off completely? Is 6 weeks in-between each reduction the way to go?

Hope all goes well for you. You might want to post on mental health board aswell as there are lots of people going through the same, who will have plenty of advice.

Everyone is different and some people are able to come off quickly and with no problems, others much more slowly like me. Personally I would say it's a bit fast, but give yourself 6 weeks in between each reduction to see how you feel, and don't reduce again until you are absolutely sure you are feeling really well. If it's not going well go back up to full dose and start again with much smaller reductions.

Thank you so much for your posts - I'm interested why you think I may be going too fast Strawberry - at this rate it will take almost 6 months to stop completely which seems a really long time to me.

Hi mummypirate, well my feelings are a bit skewed by my experiences, I was put on antidepressants with post natal depression 12 years ago, and was never able to come off them without relapsing or rather suffering really bad withdrawals. Fast forward 10 years and I discovered I needed to wean off liquid prozac excrutiatingly slowly, which is what I have been doing sucessfully since Feb 2008. Yes it's taking me that long LOL My expereince is at the extreme end of the spectrum but I do know many many people do try to come off way too fast and end up back to square one. I also know of plenty of people who have come off fast and with no problems so hopefully you will be one of those!

Hope you have no problems but just go slow on the reduction, often the start is easier than the final stage so don't assume you will be able to drop 10mg easy every time.