Stopping citalopram

[PurplePanda222]

Who has been successful at stopping citalopram? It really seems like once you take it there is no going back.

[linuxusr]

I second Aiyoo. I am not a professonal but the following explanation has been provided to me by professionals over the years: In general, the psychiatric medications that involve neurotransmitters, such as trycyclics, SSRI's, SNRI's, have a feature where sudden termination can be dangerous. This is referred to as "discontinuation syndrome." Each medication has a protocol for tapering. This is definitely a question that can only be answered by a psychiatrist expert in psychopharmacology. I would not seek this information on the Internet. The risk of misjudgement is too great.

[MM08]

I am weaning off effexor, and it's miserable. Is anyone else really down in the morning, fearing what symptoms the day will bring?

[linuxusr]

I think that the protocol can be variously named tapering protocol or discontinuation protocol or taper schedule. I am doubtful that there are experts who have codified exact tapering schedules per medication, dosage, and time. The two reasons why I don't think that formal "written in stone" protocols exist are because (1) a clinical trial evaluating dosing tapers in a given population could do harm and I seriously doubt whether any clinical trials exist that would be able to evaluate "fixed" dosing schedules, (2) there are always individual patient differences (variables) that must be taken into consideration for each patient. That being said, many "rules of thumb" for different kinds of taperings are available. I think that to be safe the rule of thumb that psychiatrists follow is to be conservative. I believe that being too conservative is not a danger but not being conservative enough could be a danger.

[MM08]

I should have provided more background info, my apologies. I need to reduce my dosage of effexor quicker than is recommended because it is causing damage to my liver. I have tapered from 225mg to 55mg (weighing the beads) over the course of five weeks, and I feel awful. I don't want to damage my liver OR my brain. So scared!