Best Citolopram dosage for severe anxiety

[elibabes]

Hello I was wondering if you could help me
I was on citalopram for some time and it helped great 80 per cent of the time, 20 per cent though it didn't work,
this was after almost a year
I was on a small amount of it though

The doctor moved me onto sertraline whatever it is called, and I know you get side affects but my anxiety went through the roof, it has just been a week in now and I have never been this anxious about everything, its like my anxiety is on steroids, it is so bad that even if it truly is just temporary to settle in, I still cant cope living through this even just for another week or two.
The taste is truly horrendous of sertraline too, and I find myself constantly hungry when I take sertraline

Should I move back onto citalopram, because it did at times work, and also, what level should I take for extreme anxiety
PS I know your not doctors and obviously I will get approval of doctor before upping any doseage, but as this is an anxiety forum I am hoping somebody on here would have had a specific amount that worked for them, as I was on I think 10mg (the basic small dose) and sometimes he upped it to 20.

Thanks

[elibabes]

please can i get an answer to this thanks

[elibabes]

seriously? nobody?
its like 4 days later and no reply
i am seriously thinking of leaving these forums, nobody replies

[Davit]

This is a subject not allowed, not that people don't reply. We are not allowed to prescribe or say to take or not take medication, You can ask what dose people are on and decide for yourself, like for me, I don't take it so I'm no help.

Any one taking this med?

[Anne1221]

The way anxiety works is that it will come around and then abate. The medication won't take it away completely. But if you feel okay 80% of the time with the medication, that is good. That's the way all of them work for me, not all the time but most of the time. That's why I have a prescription for a benzodiazepine, for times when I get extra anxious. My psychiatrist explained that it's very common for it not to work 100% of the time, and he noted that I don't have anxiety every day, but some days.

[soManyProblems]

I take 30 mg per day of escitalopram (Lexapro), which is comparable* to 60 mg of citalopram (Celexa). 30 mg of escitalopram is "a lot", the FDA recommended maximum is only 20 mg. However, I personally find that more SSRI is more better. I moved up to that dose gradually. Also, the FDA maximum for escitalopram used to be higher. They lowered it to 20 mg per day in a possibly alarmist move after people who took massive overdoses got sick. Citalopram and escitalopram are more dangerous in overdose than many other SSRIs (notably fluoxetine and sertraline).

* Escitalopram (Lexapro) is very closely related to citalopram (Celexa). Citalopram is a 50-50 mixture of R-citalopram and S-citalopram (a.k.a. escitalopram, Lexapro). R-citalopram is not an antidepressant at all and it may have side effects. That is why you may want the pure escitalopram (Lexapro), especially if you need to push the dose higher.

60 mg of citalopram (Celexa) contains 30 mg of Lexapro plus 30 mg of R-citalopram. Most doctors will not prescribe more than 40 mg per day of citalopram (Celexa), so you would have to switch to escitalopram (Lexapro). This is for the best, because the R-citalopram in citalopram (Celexa) seems to cause side effects at higher doses.

Some people (like me) are helped by larger doses of SSRIs.

I find that different SSRIs are strikingly different. I have extensive experience with both paroxetine (Paxil) and escitalopram (Lexapro), and they are very different drugs. Paroxetine is more stimulating and it relieves pain, in my experience. Escitalopram is more sleepy and more helpful for my anxiety. I also spent a while drug-free, and I decided that my brain does not function well without drugs.