Posted by Butch on March 28, 2000, at 10:23:14
I am surprised by the number of posts from people taking relatively small doses of Celexa. The manufacturer itself recommends 40mg per day, and my layman's reading of the drug studies tells me that lower doses afford only placebo effects. Check out Celexa.com (if for no other reason than to hoot at the photographs of joyous Celexa users, radiating well-being). Although I sure as hell do not hold a brief for the drug manufacturers, I wonder what prescribing physicians know, or think they know, that the manufacturer doesn't know. For me, Celexa didn't kick in until I began taking 40mg, one year ago.
I would be concerned that taking a less than full dosage could give one the annoying side effects but without the desired benefits. Furthermore, it seems that the emerging conventional wisdom on treating recurrent depression is to thoroughly stomp it out for a solid year, side effects be damned, in hopes of counteracting the "kindling effect." By that view, being timid with dosage would not merely deprive the patient of the benefits, but could actually aggravate matters by prolonging the depression and the maddening side effects.
In my personal experience I was lucky, I guess, that I became inured to side effects. The debilitating mental drama went away after a couple of months, and was no scarier than the depression itself. The most stubborn side effects for me were dermatitis and delayed orgasm. A drug holiday over a couple days sufficed to work around the sex problem.
After a year at 40mg, I have recently reduced to a maintenance dosage of 20mg, which maintenance dosage is an approach allowed, if not necessarily recommended, by the manufacturer. I feel just great, and nearly all side effects have vanished.
People taking these pills for the first time and referring to PsychoBabble (a terrifically valuable resource) should remember that the PsychoBabble commentators are not a representative sampling of medicated depressives insofar as a disproportionate number are acutely distressed or have unusually stubborn conditions. People who feel well are not motivated to post a message.
Don't despair! ADs work for most people. Bull your way through the side effects and will yourself to believe in better living through chemistry.
poster:Butch
thread:28308
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000321/msgs/28308.html