Published on 12, July, 2020
Please fucking help. I've been on Citalopram 10mg and that made me really sick and even more suicidal. I've been prescribed Fluoxetine recently which has scary side effects still, but is it more likely to make me worse because of its sensitivity? The sexual side effects are scariest, then nausea and vomiting is second.
I have only ever taken antidepressants once many years ago - and it was Citalopram. The side effects were HORRENDOUS and I would never dare take another SSRI again as a result. They made me feel suicidal too - extremely so that I was all ready to make plans and do it, not just thoughts. Thankfully I had my husband with me to get me through it - he had to take time off work because I wasn’t safe to be left alone. I’d never take them ever again. I’m sorry you’ve had a terrible experience with this drug too. Take care.
I was at a lecture where a psychiatrist was talking about the risks of changing antidepressants. What he said made sense ... basically, if someone is very depressed they don't have the motivation to even kill themselves. Starting or changing medication results in the person still having suicidal ideation, but being less depressed. As a result, they can act on the negative thoughts before the full antidepressant effect of the medication takes effect. Certainly on in-patient wards patients who were changing their medication were supposed to be monitored more closely at such times.
SSRIs work by reducing the reuptake of serotonin at the synapse between neurons. Serotonin is involved in passing electrical "messages" across the junctions (synapses) in the chain of nerve cells. In non-technical terms, serotonin is like the acid in a car battery - it is needed for the cell to "spark". The body then reabsorbs the excess and the cell returns to what you might call the "off" position, waiting for a new signal to come along. SSRIs leave more serotonin in the synapse. It takes time for the neurons to get used to the new level of serotonin. It is a bit more technical than that, but that is a rough analogy.
No doubt that happens in some cases but certainly not in my case. I was put on them for severe anxiety. I was not depressed and not experiencing suicidal thoughts in any way prior to taking them. As I stated in my post above, within a couple of months of starting Citalopram I was experiencing constant suicidal thoughts. Thankfully all those suicidal thoughts went away within days of stopping them.
I was not warned that they could cause suicidal ideation in non depressed patients. In my view they are potentially very dangerous indeed and shouldn't be prescribed so freely by GPs. Sure patients on inpatient wards can be monitored closely in that environment. GPs prescribe them after a 5 minute chat, often never having seen the patient before and possibly never seeing them again.
Those patient information sheets list every "side effect" that is ever reported using a Yellow Card (or the online system that replaces them). They can be useful for warning about drug interactions, foods to avoid (grapefruit and grapefruit juice have a lot of interactions) etc., but they can be quite tedious to read.
RTFM!