I have been on Lexapro 10 mg for about 2 years - for anxiety & panic. My doctor has suggested that?

I've also been on 10mg Lexapro daily for GAD & OCD, for about 2 years. About 3-4 months ago, I asked my prescribing Dr if I could try switching to 20mg of Celexa... for the same reason... no health insurance & 1 month of Lexapro is close to $100... 1 month of 20mg Celexa was less than $10. Plus, both drugs are very very similar in their molecular structures... so this sounded like a "win-win" situation.

Lexapro is "targeted"/marketed for treatment of GAD or other anxiety disorders, whereas Celexa is more "targeted"/marketed for treatment of bipolar disorder (my bipolar cousin swears to the "benefits" of this drug").

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Although I managed to slowly taper off of Lexapro and switch over to 20mg of Celxexa daily (over the course of 6-8 weeks)... I did experience some "serotonin withdrawal" symptoms. However... I quickly began to notice that I felt much more depressed on the Celexa vs Lexapro... and no increased benefit to the treatment of my anxiety symptoms.

Everyone responds differently to SSRI's... so what works for one patient doesn't work for another patient with the same diagnosis. However, if I could go back & do it over again... I would have NEVER tried switching from Lexapro to Celexa, simply because of the 2 months of depression I felt (which was 90% worse than what I generally experienced), then add how it affected my job performance and my parenting abilities. It was a tough financial decision... but I feel 100 times better (not 100% symptom free)... and it took another 2-3 weeks of getting the Lexapro back into my system to reduce my anxiety.

If you choose to try switching... definitely try to slowly taper off the Lexapro, while adding the Celexa into your medication schedule (perhaps replacing 1 dose of Celexa every 2-4 days and skipping that daily dose of Lexapro).
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Based soley on my personal experience... I would STRONGLY encourage you to watch for any increased symptoms of depression and/or anxiety.

Like the first and second poster said; you might want to try to ween down a bit from lexapro before starting citalopram (Its called Celexa on the united states). 10mg a day is a fairly low dose (i started at 20 right off the bat), so i wouldnt worry about withdrawing (or whatever youd call it for an AD). Plus celexa is in the same family of drugs as lezapro; SSRIs (standing for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors). When i was switched from prozac to remeron to whatever else they tried I didnt have any tapering time at all. And i was on the regular daily dose of all of them.

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I think you should talk to your doc about it, and if he deems it necessary maybe you should ween off a bit. But theres also the possibility that s/he doesnt think it will effect you negatively, and if the doctor knows you, your backround, and your past experiences with drugs i would say that you can trust them with no worries. SSRIs definitely something that the brain cxan form habbit to, but think of it like this; if youre on vicodin and the doctor changes it to percocet you wouldnt need to ween off the vicodin because they act the same on your brain.

Im not a medical professional, from past experience it makes total sense to me that you may be able to switch from one to the other without any 'overlap'.

Hope that helps, keep us posted!