citalopram and early pregnancy

[iamamartian]

i am on 20mg of citalopram and 6 weeks pregnant, gp said it was fine to take it in pregnancy. in the last few days i have been feeling panicky and anxious again, hadn't felt like this for months and months, what a bummer. should i increase the dosage? have been on 20mg for about 10 months...

So relieved to find this board. Have today had a terrible mood crash after trying to taper off citalopram in preparation for ttc. Have clearly tried to taper too fast for what I can manage - I guess some people need to do it much slower than some doctors advise. However, I also don't feel ready emotionally to do it - only trying as I'm concerned about possible effects on the baby.

My GP has said that I am fine to take it during pregnancy if I need (I'm on 20mg/day), so I'm going to listen to him. A rare instance of me doing what I'm told :).

hello,
I've read a bit too much of this thread that is ideal during work time!!
I take citraloplan.. 40mg daily. I was advised by the consultant to split my dose to 20mg in the morning and 20 in the afternoon.

They also said the baby might have some withdrawal but they will last about 2 days and he'll just be more grisly.
I wondered how people felt about not breastfeeding on the AD and whether there was 'trouble' from other people not understanding. It feels selfish to not breastfeed because I want to take AD but I know that if I stop the little mite will have a dreadful mother.
katy

Katy, if you can take the Citalopram in pregnancy why can't you breastfeed whilst on it? I'm confused!!

sorry jodanne.. no medical training and i've no idea.. it just said in my letter from the consultant that I shouldn't breast feed. I've also no idea where I've put the letter so I can't tell you anymore.. I'll have a proper look for it in a mo!
katy

hi, my daughter was premature and i got to speak to the top consultants and they said there is no problem at all taking it or breastfeeding on it, which i did.

my daughter is perfect, she was early as i had gestational diabetes so there was no link there.

Hiya
Firstly I am glad to have found this page. Im 15 weeks pregnant, came off citalopram at 6 weeks on advice from gp, then was told by consultant psychiatrist that I neednt have......I have carried on without it so far - but over last 3 weeks havent been able to sleep and have had 2 UTIs, and 2 sets of antibiotics, and have felt VERY strung out - irritated, exhausted, low and a bit paranoid tbh. Prob is - now I have been signed off work by GP and given a script to resume citalopram....I am seeing psyciatrist again tomorrow who I think will re-iterate its safety in pregnancy, and explain in more detail the risks to the baby..... I am sooooooooo stressed out at the mo - I really need my sleep back!!! I have 2 children already, work part time, and hubby works away so do everything myself - I dont have time to feel so gross!! Any comments gratefully recieved. thanks for making me feel less of a wierdo! I do feel a bit of a failure though......:(

Hey everyone!

Thank goodness I came across this discussion. I'm 22, on 20mg of citalopram, and my husband and I really want to start trying for a little one. I was dreading having to come off the tablets, but reading all of this has made me feel so much better.

Thanks everyone. Good luck to you all too!

Dani

I was on Citalaopram for years, it kept me balance when my epilepsy drugs damaged my mood lob. I was on Epilim and had a perfectly healthy baby, this is the worst drug in pregnancy. I had to come off of Citalopram as doctor said the only way to test if drugs are safe in pregnancy is to give them to pregnant women in a study, and that is never going to happen. I am a test subject in a study into the effects of antiepileptic drugs in pregnancy, I would say to any women on a drug, what ever a gp says to you, no drug is safely tested unless a study has been done on a set of women. If you have written evidance of women who have signed up like I have to a group test when they became pregnant in the maternity unit then you have some evidance of its safe use.

Don't forget, its only 9 months of your life, whats that to 80 or 90 years of a damaged humans life as a doctor decides without enough proof that a drug is safe. Thats what happened to the thalidamide people.

I'm so relieved after reading all your post's about citalopram. I have put off starting a family for my career, but have now had to give this up due to my anxiety and depression. I would love to start a family and have a great supportive husband but was so worried that I would be told to stop taking citalopram. I have reduced my does from 30 to 20mg and feel so so. I have also started yoga and Zumba classes and highly reccomend these to those trying to concieve as not only do you get fit ready for pregnancy but the have helped me with my anxiety management and their fun too. I have lso read two books, dealing with the black dog and feel the fear and do it anyway. These too have help me understand my illness and so make sense of how I feel, which helps.

Hi Jodanna I have read it because your baby gets more of the drug through your breast milk than it does through your placenta and so that's why they don't reccomend breast feeding, but maybe discuss with your gp

Hi All,
The reason why we are all confused from conflicting advise from the medical professions is that they can't do tests on pregnant women with drugs.
Yet here we all giving feedback and updates of our mental state and baby development (interesting how a number of women mentioned in this thread going cold turkey off Citalapram on advice from GP and then miscarraiging)
Surely there is some kind of open/voluntary forums that the medical profession could gather data from?
I'm on Fluxetine with GP saying stay on it. Midwifes agreeing. Consultant telling me to go to Citalapram. Another GP advising to cut down/stop in first trimester. Not take during breast-feeding.
Basically it's in my hands to choose and it's very hard but I have decided to continue with Fluxetine and i feel some one needs to be able to use the data i will have over the coming years of my child's development and effects duing pregnancy. Please mumsnet what can be done?

Data collected from people like me could help more new mummies in the coming years to make their decisions.

My best to everyone
Vee
xx
Second Baby due 24/09/11

I was on citalopram after the birth of my 1st baby and when i went to ask my G.P if it was safe to be on it due to us trying for baby number 2 he said no. The reason why is that apparantly they baby can be born drowsy and have a low heart rate. So before i got pregnant i weened myself off them and had counsiling instead,which has helped a great deal. Im now 13 weeks pregnant with baby number 2 and feel loads better having counsiling, as i felt that the citalopram was just masking my depression and i wasnt actually addressing the problem head on. Good luck but totally recomend coming off the anti depressants and having counsiling.

I've just been weaned off 20mg of Citalopram as my GP said it wasn't safe in the last trimester, due to it raising the baby's blood pressure. So it seemed better to come off it sooner rather than later (currently 12 weeks).

I feel ok as I cut down pretty slowly. My GP said that if I don't cope well on nothing, Prozac is generally thought to be safer.

I am hoping to get pregnant for the first time this year. I was on Arrowpax for 6 years had a year off. I became very sick, . Then went onto Citalopram and have been on it for 3 years.
I have looked into the risks of taking the medication against coming off. The health risks to the baby a very small. I plan to stay on the medication throughout.

im 31 weeks pregnant and have been advised that citlopram is perfectly safe, id only been on them for 2 weeks wen i found out i was pregnant n went to see my gp straight away, altho i have been goin back every other month for check ups to see how im gettin on and hes happy for me to carry on with them even after the baby is born xx

hi all...im ttc atm and on citalapram...i went to see my gp before we started trying and he reduced my dose from 20mg to 10mg. he said the benefits of taking it outweighed the risks but he didnt actually mention what the risks were....can anyone help? im very confused as to why some gps say its safe and others say it isnt?? is anyone else out there taking 10mg and ttc or already pregnant? although the dr assured me its only a low dose im still concerned about taking something during pregnancy and would never forgive myself if anything happened to my baby....i tried to come off the tablets last year and experienced a relapse of postnatal anxiety so had to restart them so am unable to be drug free throughout pregnancy....i just dont know what to do....if anyone has any advice it will be gratefully received..xx

Hi wanted to share my experiance I was on citralapram 20 for a year previous to this been on various anti depressents mood stabilisers for 14 years due to having depression. Whe I found out I was pregnant unders doctors advice I came off them felt crap for 3 weeks feel ok now just weepy and a bit moody like alot of people in the first trimesters. I have thought about going back on them but as the withdrawal was hell I dont want to go back on them and then have come off them and go thou it again. One thing I have noticed thats great about coming off citrapram is being able to cry and being able to have orgasms!!! Also I havent have mood swings just been moody. Im hoping that I will become one of them lucky woman whos imbalances are corrected during pregnancy. I am of course keeping a eye on myself and so is my family and friends.

Hi, I recently became pregnant with my second child whilst on 20mg Paroxetine my gp has now lowered them to 10mg of citalopram which i tried to go cold turkey with due to fear for my child and the desire to do the right thing. I have now discovered that the desire to kill myself is not going to help my unborn child or my 2 year old and like yourself i feel some people just need to take meds to help them be "normal". My mother also had many problems when she had me, 33 years ago she too had electric shock treatment and advised i never have kids however when i had my daughter i went straight back on my meds and enjoyed every minute of bringing her up (may i add as a single mummy). So keep taking your meds and enjoy your pregnancy and baby. people who say stop ie GP, partners etc dont realise the increased risk to your mental stability and the threat this poses to your child. Hope this helps some xx

First time on here so bear with me, I have recently tried to reduce my citralopram dose from 40mg to 20mg as i am about to start trying for a baby. i suffer from really bad anxiety and was worried about being on it while being pregnant. only managed to go down to the 20mgs dose for a few weeks and started to feel really anxious and depressed again so have been advised by my GP to increase it back up to 40mg again. have been told that its safe for the baby by my GP but still just a bit nervy about it. would really appreciate any advice anyone could give me. thanks xxx

Having been on citalopram for anxiety and severe depression, I can totally empathise with this debate BUT, there just is not enough evidence out there to rule the drug safe to take whilst pregnant. This is why I fought hell and high water to get the therapy (CBT worked for me) I needed to come off citalopram/ads before ttc.

Ultimatly, the mental health of mum should come first. I firmly believe that 100%. But, I don't believe there is as little risk as women are being asked to just take on board from their GPs. Don't forget that your GPs are NOT pharmacologists and do not understand fully how these drugs will influence pregnancy (after all, if they did know all this, we wouldn't need spscialists half as much as we do). [As a small aside, just from the number of GPs alone that insisted the combined pill was ok for me, yet my neurologist told me 100% to never take synthetic oestrogens if you have migraines...I'd say a good 60% of GPs didn't know/didn't take the advice seriously]

Studies like this are almost impossible to do, as no 'normal' (in the scientific sense here) mom is going to be allowed to take the drug during pg to have a correct control group in place. They're also not going to risk severely depressed women to potentially have a placebo in a double-blind trial...

Anyway, I guess this is a really long winded way of me saying, if you're planning on starting to conceive, please, please fight for the theraputic angle to be in place and working BEFORE you ttc. It may take a while, and you may need to find the 'right' therapy, but please check them all out. If nothing else, a baby is not going to help your mental health. Lovely though they are, you are going to be stressed/anxious/worried about money/tired etc. etc which can only lead to you feeling worse.

A lot of women/people are just drugged with anti-depressants and given no real support to manage underlying anxieties/stresses that make depression all the worse to manage, and ultimatly cause misery and expense. It IS your right to recieve the best care possible for your mental health. If you GPs just fobbing you off with drugs and not even suggesting therapies, change GPs, this is poor advice and against guidelines. Same if you've expressed an interest in TTC. THey should be doing everything they can to fight for your mental health, not just telling you it's ok to take anti-ds and leaving it there. They should be pusing you to lower your doses (at one point I was taking 4 doses of a low amoutn a day, as I found I was crashing out towards the evening if taken late pm and morning if taken am), and pushing for you to have counselling/therapy.

Also, GPs should never just be prescribing you anything without explaining the possible problems for you, or baby...again, change GPs...this is unacceptable if it's happening.

Obviously, if baby was a bit or a suprise, then less can be done, but you're still entitled to the therapies and support anyone else is.

thanks for the advice, have had CBT 3 times and it has actually done me alot of good but i do feel that citalopram has def helped too, but at the same time its still at the back of my mind. have got an excellent GP so think will continue to do a bit more research myself. thanks.

I have just found out I am pregnant (4 weeks 2 days) with my third child. I was not really expecting it even though we are so thrilled, the trouble is I am on 40mg of citalopram from the birth of my last child and subsequent PND - I tried to come off them earlier in the year but found it too hard with two little ones.

Is anyone else on citalopram in early stages of pregnancy - I am so anxious and would very much appreciate it if anyone knows if its ok.

Huge Thanks in advance

its one of those things that no one has a conclusive answer too - before I go on Im a psychiatric nurse AND more importantly I have until just before pregnancy been taking 60mg a day for OCD and depression so I can see this from both sides.

My best advice would be as follows, no drug is 100% safe, and the biggy with pregnancy is that ethically they cannot research these things. In the first and second trimester there is evidence to suggest that it is less harmful for the baby but there is still a risk of sight issues with the child with Citalopram, in the third trimester they really dont recomend anti depressants because basically they can effect your babys heart rate, increase distress in birth and babies born on anti depressants can, in some cases be a little like babies born of mums taking illegal drugs- these are only links drawn form mums with babies born on anti depressants though they are no researched in controlled environments

If I was you if your thinking about stopping Citalopram I would do it by 5mg a week, with the help of your doctor, thats not a medical recomendation thats just how I did it, and it reduced the withdrawals for me because it was a slow process, the other thing I would seriously think about is approaching your GP and asking for a referral to your local psychiatrist or community mental health team so that you could have a proper, informed discussion about the risks and the benefits of coming off or staying on, if I remember rightly and its taken me a bit to think of this so possibly not, Prozac is believed to be the safest pregnancy drug. If you are referred it would mean that you have trained professionals monitoring you and refering you on for other treatments too, I hope that helps, I know if not given you any real advice either way but this has to be your decision and I think your better discussing this face to face with a professional at the soonest possibly opportunity- whatever you decide dont stop 40mg dead you will have withdrawals and they aren't nice

It was so lovely to read your message - I am on 40mg of citalopram and 4 weeks pregnant with my third child - I can't get a straight answer out of any doctors, some say its fine other's no way - mum's what do you think? I can't just come off them as the side effects were awful but I am scared I am harming my baby x

I was really interested to find this thread and wish I'd read it several years ago.
I'm not an expert but I have been on Citralopram throughout 2 of my 3 pregnancies. I was on 40mg with my second son who was born healthy but very jittery for 24 hours, then over the next year my citralopram was increased to 60mg and I unexpectedly got pregnant again. I was under the impression that Citralopram was safe during pregnancy, but have since been told that a dosage higher than 40mg is not advised - unfortunately my GP did not realise and my 3rd child has been born with a number of health issues that her specialists are attributing to the citralopram. I am happy to give anyone further information about my experience to help others avoid the same outcome, or if anyone has further information about the danger and effects of citralopram during pregnancy it may help my research. Thanks Clare
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