Posted by Kathleen6674 on September 2, 2001, at 21:06:59
In reply to Celexa - anyone tried it?, posted by nutsy on September 2, 2001, at 19:34:10
> Does it have less side effects as promised?
I've only been on it for about three weeks - it does have some side effects. By "less" I'm not sure what is meant. My pdoc told that, contrary to what is commonly believed, Celexa doesn't actually have "fewer" side effects - that depends on one's individual makeup, varies from patient to patient, etc. What he did say is that there was no one side effect profile. Which means: certain meds, such as Prozac and Wellbutrin, are "activating" and tend to make people hyper. Or certain drugs, such as SSRI's, tend to cause sexual dysfunction (Celexa is among these, and I've definitely noticed this as a problem); Certain other drugs are sedating. Others cause weight gain. I've heard that Celexa sometimes causes weight gain, sometimes loss; sometimes diarrhea, sometimes constipation, sometimes tiredness, sometimes jitters, etc. Also, it's a very "pure" SSRI - it targets seritonin receptors and few others in the brain, whereas many other meds primarily target seretonin but residually (or deliberately, as the case may be) target other sites - neurepinephrine, dopamine, what-have-you.
The "purity" may lead to fewer side effects based on those other receptor sites, perhaps less hyperness than if dopamine receptors are directly effected.
In practice, all of this may or may not mean anything. The old "your mileage may vary" statement from the front page of this site.
One thing that always makes me skeptical about "purity" - once the seretonin mechanisms are working better, my understanding is that this can often cause other parts of the brain to change, i.e., the dopamine, neurepinephrine, whatever sites worked one way, based on "depressive" brain chemistry; it would make sense to me that they might change their tunes, or the way they respond to the presence or absence of transmitters, once the overall balance is changed via an SSRI, be it Celexa or anything else. Hence, even if the med itself only directly hits one type of neurotransmitter, others may end up eventually coming into play, for better or for worse.
Plus, I've heard how certain parts of the brain become less active and perhaps degenerate a bit when depressed, then they start to regroup and rebuild once treated; I'd guess that just how this regrouping and rebuilding occurs might differ according to the meds used, plus the side effects of whatever the regrouping means for the body, or behavior, or emotions, might all play to a different tune depending on the med(s) being used.
And those side effects, in my limited personal experience, Celexa has:Made me lose my sense of taste, completely and totally, for about three days. I've since gotten it back. It's made me crave sweets and carbs and eat damn near everything that isn't nailed down. It's made it difficult for me to become sexually aroused and damn near impossible to have an orgasm. IF I'm lucky enough to have one, it feels markedly dulled in intensity and duration. It's also caused me to feel emotionally numb, not very motivated, and not especially interested in much of anything.
I am going to see my pdoc in a few days - but you will notice that these side effects are hardly few in number - they are pretty much the same in number as those I've experienced on other meds, they are just different - each med is different for each person, so it's more a game of try and see than "this one has 3 side effects, this one has 5" kind of thing.
The Celexa is helping a little bit, too: I no longer have crying jags (I do suppose it is better to feel numb than to feel downright awful); I have a little more energy, and I sleep a normal 7 to 8 hours a night, as opposed to way too much or way too little (problems I've had with other meds).I think some of the "fewer" discussion may be because perhaps people find some Celexa side effect easier to deal with than those of other meds: I don't love the stuff so far, but right now it's better than heart palpitations, panic attacks, or sleeping 2/3rds of every day away, battling muscle weakness and leg cramps. None of those have occured with Celexa, but I sure had them with other meds.
As far as being a "miracle drug," though, free of side effects, that's just not the case for me.
poster:Kathleen6674
thread:77454
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010902/msgs/77464.html