[Wantabenormal]

I have been on Citalopram and Remeron for 4 months now. I was feeling pretty good for a while but I am noticing that I am starting to slip back into depression.

Has anyone else experienced this?

[Rohag]

Hi, Wantabenormal! It is common for medications to start to have different effects over time, but this is something you should discuss soon with your doctor.

My experience is that they first go through a period of weeks to months of trying to find an initial therapeutic dosage of a drug or combination of drugs, then they later adjust the dosage aiming at longer term maintenance. And, of course, sometimes a drug stops working or never works at all for an individual, or the side effects just aren't worth it.

Please tell your prescribing doctor.

[justfloating]

Yes! I've had all kinds of wonky effects from medication, from the working then not that you're describing, to actually making things worse, to making things great one minute then nasty the next. I agree with Rohag, in my experience it took a long time (well over a year for me) to find the right drug/combination of drugs and their dosages to finally get me where I needed to be. At stressful times like exams, I've also been put on additional "booster" medications to help up the effects of my current medication for short periods of time. It's a really long process, so try to be patient, and make sure your doctor knows exactly what's going on with you. In my experience when the meds started working then stopped, it meant we'd struck on the right drug but the wrong dosage, so I had to get my dosage upped several times.

Good luck!

[ECHOES]

Is anything new happening in your life recently that could contribute to your depression?

[Wantabenormal]

Thank for the advise everyone.

I have taken several other drugs before this one (Prozac, Welbutrin, etc...) and currently on the highest dosage of Citalopram available.
My next doctors appointment is in November so I guess I'll just wait it out until then.

As far as recent changes that could contribute.... I can't think of anything. Nothing earth shattering anyways.

[Kiffygirl0793]

Yes, it's happened to me before, I call it a relapse, I can kind of feel when it's happening, I start remembering bad incidents in my life and they take over. Last time it happened my pdoc just added another medication and eventually it went away. But unfortunately this is the cross we have to bear.

[Vossie42]

I have taken several other drugs before this one (Prozac, Welbutrin, etc...) and currently on the highest dosage of Citalopram available.

Perhaps you would benefit from escitalopram. It goes by the brand name of Lexapro. No generic is available yet. Escitalopram is a derivative of citalopram and is more potent. As a rule of thumb, 20mg of escitalopram = 40mg of citalopram. But that's just a rule of thumb my psychiatrist came up with from his experience.

I've experienced far fewer side effects (lethargy, brain fog, decreased libido) from Lexapro than I did with Celexa (citalopram). I'm on different meds now though I still take some Lexapro. It's powerful stuff.

[leejones]

why are you taking two ad's?

[Wantabenormal]

My Pdoc put me on the Citalopram 40 mgs for 4 months. On my next appt I told him I felt a little better but that I knew there was still something wrong. That's when he put me on the Remeron 15 mgs daily along with the Citalopram. It worked for about a month but now I feel like I'm going backwards.