What Is The Dosage Of Lexapro For OCD?

Posted on Thu, 12 Feb 2015

Question: I am on Lexapro 50 mg, Klonopin 2mg, Keppra 1500 mg and Solian 100 mg (amisulpride) for ocd caused by agonism of receptors 5HT7 and 5HT2b because of Solian and some dopaminergic activity of thie same Solian. I feel better, but i feel that the recovery at higher dosages of Lexapro is always slow, after six weeks i feel improvement but it's not stable and it's not a full improvement. I would like to know if the improvement goes slower because I am a poor metabolizer of cyp2c19 and probably mild for cyp2d6. Maybe because of this fact i have to wait some more weeks for a better recovery?
Thanks beforehand XXXXXXX

Answered by Dr. Dr. Chintan Solanki (51 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Yes you should wait 6 weeks more

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

Thanks for writing to us again.

Escitalopram(Lexapro) is used less often for OCD in 50 mg dose. However there is a study suggesting that 50 mg dose given for 12 weeks showed improvement in OCD.Otherwise most of the medicines show effects after duration of 4-8 weeks.
By going to this evidence based study you should wait for more 6 weeks for further improvement.You can find this study with following link:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/0000

Escitalopram is metabolized by the cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoenzymes CYP2C19, CYP2D6 and CYP3A4. While everyone agrees that CYP2D6 does most of the work, the data are mixed regarding CYP2C19 and CYP3A4.Being poor metabolizer of Cyp2c19 and mild for Cyp2D6 it does not reduce lexpro level rather it may increase the lexapro level in your body. So it is not the cause for slower improvement. Lexpro itself is less potent for OCD among all SSRI for ocd. That is why it is showing slower improvement.

Hope I have answered your query, I will be happy to help further.

regards,
Dr.Chintan Solanki.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Bhagyalaxmi Nalaparaju