New tablets, any advice?

I take 20mgs of Citalopram and have done for about 6months. I take it in the morning with my first cup of tea along with a low dose of Felodipine for blood pressure.
I have had no side effects at all. I do not sleep well but never have done.
I hope you find them effective and they "suit you".

While pressing send it occurred to me that the med starting with "M" might have been Mertazipine. That suits my friend very well while Citalopram didn't. Trial and error really.

I do hope that this new medication suits you and makes you well.

You are clearly aware that it is a whole different type of drug. I tried a drug from the same family and could not tolerate them at all, as they made me very nauseous. But my DD has been taking Citalopram for many years, as has a friend of mine, and they are both really well on them with no side effects at all. My DD's life was transformed. I believe that my DD takes hers at night.

I hope you get the same good result.

Have been on the older version of citalopram ..escitalopram for about 8 years..now take 10mg as any higher not recommended for the over 60s,my son takes citalopram 20mg. I take mine with cup of tea and other meds first thing in morning,my son although a night worker takes his first thing before he goes to bed...when starting on them neither of us has any side effects when first taking them with and have been as alert as we are able .....I believe Dosulepin is a different type of AD I believe it is also known as prothiaden,which has been used for many years and if I remember rightly one of the strengths have been discontinued think its 75mg sometimes was unobtainable from suppliers quite a lot....you ill be fine phoenix always disconcerting when meds you have taken for years are changed isn't it xx

That's interesting downtoearth as I am 78!! I must look years younger to my GP

Thank you all for the replies, they are appreciated.

The consultant has recommended the change after my being referred for short term memory loss. The CT scan showed a slight lack of expected density in the whotsit doobry part of my brain

I am supposed to be having an MRI scan on Wednesday, but am a bit nervous about this as I had a bone graft from the hip to the jaw at 15 y.o. which I believe was initially held in place with pins or wires, which of course would mean that an MRI was definitely NOT a good idea! I have spoken to the department and they have said that based on my CT scan, it should be fine

Apparently the Citalopram is good at either producing seratonin or stimulating it/simulating it which is good for memory problems.

downtoearth when I was "upped" from 75mg to 100mg of Dosulepin, it was costing me a double prescription charge, as it was only available in 75mg tablets or 25mg capsules. Apparently my GP was not allowed to prescribe 100mg a day made up of 4 x 25mg capsules

annsixty mine must have thought I looked older he cut me down when I was 59 ...obviously (as we in the pharmacy game say) your GP will weigh up all the factors and prescribe according to your needs...

phoenix the way a pharmacy gets paid and the way a doctor writes a prescription is determined by the pricing bureau for what they will or will not pay the pharmacy for....bonkers but it all boils down to money in the end,and not in your favour.

That could make sense (sort of!) downtoearth my GP's practice is a dispensing one, in that a patient doesn't walk out with a paper prescription, but actually gets whatever medication has been prescribed.

I did ask about changing the Dosulepin to be 1 prescription for the corresponding amount of capsules, but was told that it couldn't be done.

Oh well, all changed now as I seem to be back on 1 prescription a month instead of 2!

Confused of Devon.

My GP is a dispensing one,but the pricing rules apply to all precscriptions,which is the pharmacies bread and butter.,There are fluctuations in prices which is why the same drug comes from many different suppliers and different packaging and the most cost effective is given,unless the GP has specified a brand,ie Prothiaden,and not the generic Dosulepin,a GP will reluctantly do this if a patient is sensitive to changes in brand changes....did you ever consider a prepayment option which may have been cheaper for you depending how many items you have in a year/6months/3monthsxxx

DH has been on Citalopram for the last 5 years. He doesn't seem to have any side effects from it (He's been on such a cocktail of drugs all this time that it's hard to tell which causes what ) The only problems have been when he decided to stop taking it! I have now convinced him that that will have to be a long term project.

Again, thanks to all!

I have looked at the prepayment thing, but can't remember how it worked out! I think that when I last looked the up front amount was a problem at the time but could be different now.

Just wish I could decide which way to go with the first dose of the Citalopram! In the morning, at bedtime or with the "bongs" at 6pm.

I felt I right numpty/Pavlov's dog earlier this evening, "bong" on Radio 4, I rose from the chair like an automaton and headed for the cupboard, then remembered! [blushed]

Right, off for a drug free early night, will read a bit as usual and see what happens. Must say, that even with the Dosulepin at 6pm, my sleep pattern has not been good.

Will try to decide on time to take them, just a bit worried if I do try first thing tomorrow, might get all of a doo dah at work tomorrow!

I take 20 mg citalopram each morning and am unaware of any side effects. Doing so for about five years and I'm 66.
Had never taken an AD before and didn't realise how flat I felt, until I felt better. Gave me back my zest for life.

Would it not be best to switch when you've got a clear run of a few days not working? I don't understand about the Dosulepin. If the medication is the same but two different strengths it should be put on one prescription with only one charge...I'm sure that's how we did it . Sometimes a good idea to get a PPC if you're on something new and there's a likelyhood of the dose changing over a period of a few weeks.

Tegan same drug on a script two different strengths=2 charges,do you remember prempak c had two different strengths as it had two strengths the confusion that caused some people espescially as prempak had only one therefore one charge,it has got quite confusing and I had to keep referring to the chart because of a few anomalies with certain things FPC like to confuse things

except when its warfarin...I knew one escaped me..

I'm still sure it's one charge for the purchaser but counts as two charges as a prescription ie put 1+1 in the little box at the bottom. Mind you; I'm not going to dig my folder out...having been made to do a course on something I'd been doing for 20 years still grates on me [especially as I thought I'd completed it and then found I'd only done half! it was SOOOO boring ]. Maybe Prempak C was because there were two things in the one box? I know people don't pay for thyroxine but I'm sure each prescription only had one charge. I don't think even the people upstairs in the office knew half the time what we should be charging #thosewerethedays

Aha; Prempak C had some tablets containing estrogen and some with norgestrel, therefore they were two different formulations and two charges.

Tegan re took my NVQ 2 again in dispensing last year,so completely different to the first lot I did in 1968,different pharmacies have different approaches don't they,this time round it was co-op pharmacy,first was Boots with lots of private chemists in between..dispensing these days is a conveyor belt operation,I used to like getting down and dirty with stock mixtures,or knocking up a batch of some gunky ointment with some pretty weird,wonderful or just plain smelly ingrediants...rock sulphur springs to mind [stinky emoticon]

Oh I never got to do that! But I did love decanting little tablets into dinky little bottles; if I managed to tip out the correct quantity into that triangular shaped thing I'd feel really chuffed [the slightly rounded ones that looked like Smarties wouldn't behave properly ]. Shelves looked neater when most things had to be dispensed in boxes though. Remember when Damien Hirst did a pharmacy as one of his 'works of art'? I just though, blimey, what's artistic about that ?If ever you get to a gransnet met up we'll have to sit in a corner and chat about it. I do miss it sometimes.

I never got to grips with the triangle always preferred to count ...and then the phone would ring.....true about the boxes until GPs ordered 30 tablets and they only came in 28s then you had to fart about taking 2 out and putting them in the box leaving 26 for the next script ..

That's when elastic bands came in handy red elastic band = incomplete box. Oh happy days. My little dispensary is now derelict [branch surgery was closed own due to cuts ]. I'll come back and haunt it one day !

How has today been phoenix

Phoenix Have you spoken to a pharmacist who might have a slightly better grasp of how these drugs work or affect others than a GP?

Errrrmmmm, fine, thanks for asking, but that may be because I haven't taken any yet

Bloody awful last night though, but again, that's not exactly unusual.

I'm supposed to be having an MRI scan tomorrow, but have chickened out re-scheduled it.

It is coming up to "month end" and I'm having my first proper go at preparing all the account thingys to go to the accountant, so of course I can't possibly have tomorrow off, even though I usually work Monday, Tuesday & Thursday I will go in tomorrow, just so that I'm (hopefully) ahead of things and can avoid last minute rushing etc.

I love this job, even though the dentist wouldn't let me book DS (boss) check up appointment, due to "data protection"