toronto_girl Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 I understand that Lexapro (Escitalopram) is the enantiomer of Celexa (Citalopram)… I also understand that Lexapro is apparently a high selective SSRI… However, my pdoc insists that the creators basically wanted to extend the lifetime of Citalopram…so she prescribed Celexa instead of Lexapro (Cipralex in Canada). I had to taper of Prozac because I was having severe panic attacks on Prozac. However, after 4 days on Celexa I feel absolutely sedated during the day and agitated at night… Is Lexapro better? Do I go back to the fun I had on Prozac? Or do I take this opportunity to go off SSRI’s… I’m so tired and confused! (It certainly didn’t help to read “Let them Eat Prozac…” SSRI’s scare me a bit now…) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helenllama Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Cipralex has a max recommended dose of 20mg a day while for Celexa this can be up to 60mg a day. Despite Citalopram having 50:50 ratio of isomers. Plus the salt forms are different. Also looking at the PIL in the UK Cipralex tends to have more approved uses for different anxiety disorders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tryp Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Hey, I am on Celexa. When I asked my pdoc why she had prescribed Celexa instead of Lexapro, she said that she likes Celexa better because there are more dosing options. It can also be helpful for people with impaired liver function, I believe - lower dose of only 1 enantiomer means less to metabolize with theoretically less side effects. This is also a your mileage may vary issue, though - while theoretically there should be no difference, except that Lexapro should have fewer side effects, some people do respond very differently to one or the other. About the sedation - are you taking your Celexa in the morning or at night? If you're taking it at night, you might want to switch to morning. My pdoc says it's a morning med. Also, it makes me really anxious, but YMMV on that one too. Tryp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
void Posted December 25, 2009 Share Posted December 25, 2009 I found Lexapro to have less noticeable side effects in terms of agitation and general "medicated" feeling than Celexa, neither of them did very much for me and when I was dosed with 60mg of Celexa I was just grumpy and agitated, though it did lift the depression at this dose the agitation levels were high but waned after a couple weeks. All effects of both these meds wore off after being on them for around a month and a half (Celexa) to 2 months (Lexapro), these periods where the meds worked were after the dosage had been increased to a level where the depression was coming under control, (ie. I started thinking rather than existing in a black hole) bear in mind I did the Celexa first, yet the Lexapro had a longer lasting effect despite being used shortly after the Celexa. In South africa as well its Cipramil = Celexa and Cipralex = Lexapro, I prefer the local names, sort of sound softer to me. Edit: Just to clarify stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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