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Suggest Treatment For Severe Depression While On Citalopram
Question: My husband is taking 20mg of citalopram. He was taking 10mg and about 6 months ago his dr. increased his dose to 20 mg as he still had bouts with depression. The last two weeks he said that he is tired all the time and his legs ache. He does't want to get out of bed. What can I do to get him feeling normal again?
Brief Answer:
I think it will be better to shift him to new drug
Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome to healthcare magic!
I have gone through your query and it reflects that your husband is not completely out of the present depressive episode. The dosage of citalopram is adequate but he is not responding.
In such cases I would prefer to change the molecule and to a new one. Drugs like sertraline or paroxetine will be good options.
It will be better if crossing over form one drug to another is done. In this we reduce the previous drug and start building up the new one. This can be done over a period of about ten days to two week.
Apart from this it will be wise to go for
vit b12 & vit D and folate levels testing. They are usually found very low and supplementing them also help in overall response.
It is difficult for patient to get up from bed when he is in moderate to severe depressive episode. But the change on going out of home into parks or green or some place like on vacation helps a lot.
You can change the medicine after talking to the doctor.
There is no need to worry as it is seen very commonly that petients donot respond adequately to one drug but have very good results with the different molecule.
I hope the reply is useful for you.
wish you good health and speedy recovery for the patient.
please feel free to ask more questions for clarification
Dr. Manisha Gopal
MD Neuropsychiatry
I think it will be better to shift him to new drug
Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome to healthcare magic!
I have gone through your query and it reflects that your husband is not completely out of the present depressive episode. The dosage of citalopram is adequate but he is not responding.
In such cases I would prefer to change the molecule and to a new one. Drugs like sertraline or paroxetine will be good options.
It will be better if crossing over form one drug to another is done. In this we reduce the previous drug and start building up the new one. This can be done over a period of about ten days to two week.
Apart from this it will be wise to go for
vit b12 & vit D and folate levels testing. They are usually found very low and supplementing them also help in overall response.
It is difficult for patient to get up from bed when he is in moderate to severe depressive episode. But the change on going out of home into parks or green or some place like on vacation helps a lot.
You can change the medicine after talking to the doctor.
There is no need to worry as it is seen very commonly that petients donot respond adequately to one drug but have very good results with the different molecule.
I hope the reply is useful for you.
wish you good health and speedy recovery for the patient.
please feel free to ask more questions for clarification
Dr. Manisha Gopal
MD Neuropsychiatry
Note: For further guidance on mental health, Click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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