Celexa Vs. Lexapro
 

Hey all!

My healthcare provider recently switched me from Lexapro to Celexa. He informed me that there is NO generic for Lexapro (which I knew), and said this was a generic "form" with the same basic drug. I don't know. I trust him and all. So I'm going to make the switch because Lexapro is just so expensive.

I was just wondering if (a) anyone knew anything about switching these drugs and if (b) anyone knew about Celexa and weight loss. I never had any issues while on Lexapro, granted, I'm still pretty early in the weight loss attempts, but I'm just a little concerned.

I know my mental well-being should come first. But still.

Thanks in advance!!

I currently take lexapro, but have never taken celexa. I'm sorry that I can't answer your question. I just wanted to wish you good luck with your new medication and I hope someone can answer your question!

Thanks, Martina. I'm a little nervous to switch over, but paying an arm and a leg wasn't an option either. Until now, I've always gotten samples from my doctor. I guess I'll just watch it fairly closely... hopefully it doesn't effect the weight loss factors. I'm pretty proud to have lost so far.

I've been on celexa for over 4 years but I don't think it's sabotaged efforts at weight loss. My Doctor called Celexa the "twin sister" to Lexapro so I don't think that switching it should be too much of a deal. But the nice thing is that Celexa is on the Wal-Mart $4 list.

:)

Yeah. Celexa is $5 with my mom's insurance. (Yay for being 21?) and Lexapro would have been $25. Which isn't really that bad, but for a college kid, that's food for like two weeks.

I'm glad to hear it hasn't affected your efforts at all, ladywyyn. My doctor didn't seem to have any concerns about switching, minus a recheck in a month, but that's pretty common for me because when I first went on Lexapro I had nasty emotional side effects that almost had me put in an emergency protective custody... so...we recheck pretty often. :P

Anyways. Thanks a ton, ladies! I appreciate it!

I don't know if you've ever had organic chemistry or not, so I won't get into too much detail, and if you have then you can safely ignore most of this...

When a chiral organic molecule forms, it can have two "directions" of the molecules forming around the chiral center, notated as being either R or S enantiomers of one another. For an organic compound like citalopram, it forms racemically - which means exactly equal amounts of R & S.

R or S can have a huge impact - they are in effect entirely different substances in many compounds. For example, the same compound that makes mint taste minty has an enantiomer that is what makes carroway seeds taste the way they do!

Citalopram (Celexa) was developed first, which is fully racemic. It was identified that the R-enantiomer didn't really do much, while the S-enantiomer seemed to be the psychoactive drug. Escitalopram (Lexapro) is the isolated S-enantiomer. The process of isolating an enantiomer out of a racemic mixture that can't be produced via an enzyme catalyst is quite complicated and expensive, so a lot of the cost gets passed down to the consumer beyond it just being brand name vs. generic.

I was on both citalopram and escitalopram; I had an *extremely* negative reaction to citalopram, but only a sort of awful reaction to escitalopram. It's been shown to make a significant clinical difference in *some* patients, but not others; it's really individual how your body reacts to different enantiomers.

Some people can switch back and forth and really react to both drugs exactly the same way... but I wasn't one of those people.

For most people both tend to be fairly weight-neutral though.

Expunge - Thanks for the info! It's great to know how that works...and I truly didn't know. I hope it works. I'm out of Lexapro tomorrow and starting the Celexa on Saturday. I'm really nervous, because I've had some pretty nasty side effects with my Lexapro when we upped the dose by too much...

Anyway, thanks again.

I don't take lexapro but my boyfriend does, and has been on it for a couple years now. His doctor switched him to celexa, explaining that it's a "mirrored" version of it. When he switched he felt a bit "off" for the next week or two. He described it as his "sense of well being was gone" we didn't notice any side effects such as weight gain or libido decrease/increase or weird stuff like that.. But it did seem to negatively affect his mental state. Please be careful with doing this. I overdosed a few years ago when I was on lexapro, and hospitalized. Never fun.

I was on Lexapro for about two years until I had gotten pregnant with my daughter. Didn't have any side effects from this specific medicine, but I had to be paired with other medications because I have a drug resistant depression (when I'm in a major depressive episode) but I believe I had been told by my doctor, or was most certainly under the impression, that Lexapro was basically Celexa and Prozac put together. Hmm...

LR

It'll be interesting to see how the Lexapro to Celexa switch effects me. I've been on Lexapro for about a year and because of other new medication my doctor started me on for my PCOS we decided I might be able to wean off of it. Didn't work so well. For the last 2 weeks I've been feeling really off, like my OCD came back with a vengeance and annoyed the heck out of my coworkers. Over the weekend I became highly emotional...one minute I wanted to throw something, the next I was bawling my eyes out for absolutely no reason. It culminated yesterday to me all but yelling at my boss. That struck home, so I called my doctor and told him what was up. I can't afford the Lexapro. Charmsey, you're lucky it was only $25 per month, I was paying $95+ because I'm on a high deductible insurance plan. That was really not working! So I start the $4 Celexa in a couple days after the last of my Lexapro runs out. Hope it works! For you, too, Charmsey.

To Charmsey- curious how your results went...
 

Hi,

I'm on the internet researching weight gain on citalopram and I'm shocked at everything I'm reading.

I was on generic lexapro for about a year. Then my insurance made the generic go up to over $100, which I thought was strange. Instead of running out while I tried to get to the bottom of the situation, my doctor put my on citalopram, which is only $10 for me.

Since then, I did gain a lot of weight, mostly in my stomach where I had never gained weight before. Within the last 3 months, three people have asked me if I'm pregnant.

I never associated it with the medicine because I was told I wouldn't gain weight on it but it finally clicked with me just two days ago. I work out a lot and eat pretty healthily but I also indulge so it could be anything. However, I am choosing to try to wean off citaprolam and see what happens with my weight then.

After everything I've read, it seems that it does affect so many people in various ways. I felt better on lexapro and may have to figure out a way to purchase that. Thanks for any info you can give. Good luck!