Ion Posted April 22, 2018 Share Posted April 22, 2018 I had another med change about 2 weeks ago. I was tapering off citalopram and I was supposed to start Trintellix immediately but my insurance required more paperwork and 12 business days to process it. Now I'm done the citalopram and still on Wellbutrin & Abilify. Things were going well, better even, until the citalopram was completely out of my system. At that point I started feeling really off. At first I blamed it on a cold/flu I'd been having, but that didn't quite add up. Now SSRI discontinuation seems to be the most likely cause. I'm not completely sure, but it fits best of the current possibilities. I've got headache, nausea, something like vertigo and something a bit like brain zaps. I've also got chills and cold sweats. Normally I'm reasonably good at managing side-effects, but with these ones I can't figure out what I can do to reduce the severity. Does anyone have suggestions of things I can try to make this more comfortable? Maybe I should restart the low dose of citalopram while I wait? I have really limited access to my pdoc. I don't see him for another 2 months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ion Posted April 22, 2018 Author Share Posted April 22, 2018 Writing this out helped me think through things and I decided to test the theory that this is related to discontinuation and go from there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
looking for answers Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 sounds like a lil discontinuation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyRedhead Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, sbdivemaster said: Contact Pdoc about some low dose of an SSRI with long half life for a slow taper. I agree........Prozac comes to mind, as it has the longest half-life of all the SSRIs. https://www.utmb.edu/psychiatry/education/undergraduate/issuesinselectionofanantidepressant/page_13.htm Edited April 23, 2018 by CrazyRedhead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ion Posted April 23, 2018 Author Share Posted April 23, 2018 I took the lowest dose of citalopram yesterday and felt better after a few hours. My Trintellix prescription should be processed within the next week and after I start that this shouldn't be an issue anymore 1 hour ago, sbdivemaster said: I also take this time to link to a couple of very recent NYT articles on this very subject: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/07/health/antidepressants-withdrawal-prozac-cymbalta.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/health/antidepressants-withdrawal-readers.html I read the first one, but hadn't read the responses. The original article felt moderately anti-med to me, though I am very much in favor of patients being fully informed about the meds they are being prescribed. The second psych med I ever took was Effexor. I was really scared about the discontinuation effects (which I later got) and I got a very poor reaction from that Dr when I asked about it. But now several years and a few meds later, discontinuation would not be a deal-breaker for me. The condition I'm trying to treat is far worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ion Posted April 26, 2018 Author Share Posted April 26, 2018 Finally got the Trintellix filled! In between I found that 10mg of citalopram would prevent the discontinuation effects for roughly several days so I managed to stay comfortable while I waited Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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