Useful information if you have been prescribed citalopram by your doctor.
Hello my name is hilary eden and i’m a pharmacist with over 20 years experience working for the nhs in the uk welcome to hill’s pills in these videos i’m going to provide you with some useful information about medicines that have been prescribed for you by your doctor in this video i’m going to talk about citalopram citalopram is a selective serotonin reuptake
Inhibitor or ssri and it works by increasing the amount of serotonin in your brain a lack of serotonin has thought to be one of the main causes of depression and so citalopram is used to treat depression in the short-term it can help prevent depression recurring and it can be used in the longer term to try and prevent depression in people who’ve got a history of
Depression or had it previously citalopram can also be used to treat panic attacks citalopram is quite easy to take it comes as 10 20 and 40 milligram tablets and for depression the usual dose is 20 milligrams once a day and if necessary that can be increased to 40 milligrams once a day the panic attacks the doses usually started at 10 milligrams once a day for one
Week then increased to 20 or 30 min agrees to 40 milligrams if necessary you can take supernal prime at any time of day but it’s best to take it at the same time each day you can take it with or without food and swallow the tablets whole with some water they’re very bitter if you try and chew them so tala pram takes some time to work so you need to persevere with
It you’ll take it to lea at least two weeks to work and in some people it can take a bit longer when you start taking citalopram you may find that you feel increasing increasingly anxious but this is quite normal persevere with the tablets after a couple of weeks you should start to feel better you may also feel a bit restless or agitated and find it difficult
To sit still or lie still and you may also go through a bit of a manic phase when you have unusual sense of elation some crazy thoughts and unusual thoughts very rarely you may actually even get some suicidal thoughts when you start citalopram that’s particularly common in young people less than 25 years old if this happens please go back and see your doctor or
Seek some other sources of help you shouldn’t take citalopram if you’ve got an abnormal heart rhythm or are taking medicines for an abnormal heart rhythm or other medicines who may affect your heart rhythm there’s also some drug interactions with the telepractice some other antidepressant drugs a group of drugs called mao eyes and it could also interact with drugs
For parkinson’s disease there’s also a horrible remedy for depression cords at john’s wort and you mustn’t take citalopram with sir john’s wort if you prescribed any other medication while you’re taking citalopram make sure the doctor who’s prescribing knows that you’re taking a citalopram so they can check there are no interactions if you think you’ve taken too
Many citalopram tablets or somebody you know has you should seek medical attention an overdose of citalopram can take a little time to show and you may feel absolutely fine but it can be quite dangerous and you can get abnormal heart rhythms and all sorts of other problems so please seek medical help if you’ve taken too many you should stop taking citalopram if
You get an allergic reaction to it so that’s a sudden onset difficulty breathing swelling of the face mouth nose or throat or you get an unusual severe skin rash there’s another condition that sometimes occurs with citalopram and it’s called serotonin syndrome you might get fits become very elated to have a high fever be very agitated confused and get rapid muscle
Contractions or twitching if that occurs you should stop taking the citalopram and seek medical help the side effects of citalopram that occur in about 1 in 10 people so the common side effects are sleep disturbances so difficulty sleeping difficulty getting a good night’s sleep also you can get a headache and sometimes you’d get muscle weakness or loss of strength
Citalopram can make you feel drowsy so if this occurs you shouldn’t drive or operate machinery and finally i wouldn’t recommend that you drink alcohol while you’re taking citalopram i hope this information has been useful if you need some more detailed information about citalopram please see the patient information leaflet that was provided with the tablets when
They were dispensed by your pharmacist if you haven’t go copy of this leaflet or you need another one you can download it from www dot org dot uk’ if you want some more help about medicines that have been prescribed by your doctor please see my other videos either on youtube or on my website www.themanufacturingmentor.com
Transcribed from video
Hil's Pills – Citalopram – Useful Information By Hil’s Pills
