Taking Celexa while pregnant

supersmile4

Is anyone on this medication?  When I spoke to my doctor she said there are no studies showing any birth defects in babies.  I am still leary although I heard not being on it can be worse on the baby.  I am wondering if a small dose isn't so bad?

annam829

ok heres the deal...

i went through very bad depression after having dd that never quite went away...i was on zoloft and doing very well...that is supposd to be one of the "safer" ones.  i am not sure about celexa but i know paxil is no good...

my dr took me off of the zoloft immediatly when i found out i was pg...while it is not known to cause any harm to the fetus, there is not enough studies.

he said it would be better to try and go off of it, at least for the 1st tri b/c that is when the fetus is developing...the 2nd and 3rd the baby is just growing.  i am going to be re-evaluated when i hit the 2nd tr and he is trying to hold off putting me back on until month 8.

he wants it fully in my system when the baby is born to prevent ppd...

the withdrawl has been awful but i am strating to feel ok...

the best thing?  talk it over with your doctor...good luck   is this your first baby?  how long have you been diagnosed w/ depression?

ac_in_dc

I'm still on it. It's class D because there haven't been as many studies on it as other SSRIs but my psychiatrist seems to think in all likelihood it's as safe as the others.

SSRIs are funny...unlike other meds they can be more of a problem later in pregnancy rather than earlier. So trying to taper off during a pregnancy is a good option. That's what I'm trying to do. When I got my BFP I was on 300 mg wellbutrin and 40 mg celexa daily. Now I'm only taking 20 mg celexa and planning on tapering down to 10 and eventually nothing, if I can. Now that I'm knocked up I've notices that it's easier to lower my med doses...the extra pregnancy hormones are helping to ameliorate the depression for me--I don't know if this is the same for everyone.

If I can't handle it without getting depressed, I'll go back on. Risks from depression are greater than risks from SSRIs.

My best friend is a psychiatrist and she stayed on her antidepressants through both of her pregnancies.

Sorry for the long post. Good luck!

ac_in_dc

wow, that's interesting that my advice and experience is so different from annam's. Shows you how little we really know about these drugs...definitely speak to both your OB and a psychiatrist, they will have different points of view.

dstar

I was on it, well Citlapram which is the generic.  No studies have been conducted on Celexa itself but they feel the same risks are associated with Celexa as are with Paxil, which they did the study on.  Being on the drug can cause heart problems in the baby and also, pulmonary(??) hyper tension (problems breathing at birth).  2% of the 100 people studied had these issues.  My dr. basically said it was up to me whether I got off the drug or not but that she had to warn me of the side effects.  My DH and I decided that I would go off of them.  During the withdrawal period, I almost went back on.  The best way I can describe the feeling is a vibrator to your brain.  I keep getting these brain surges that made me feel awful (worse than m/s) and I became very angry and irriated ( sorry I can't spell today).  Since those have almost gone away, I have been off the meds for almost 3 weeks, I feel a lot better.  I can say my personalilty has changed, I am not as easy going and I get a little bit more upset easier and I have more anxiety, which is why I went on meds to begin with.  But I don't think it is enough to cause harm to the baby.  You need to make the decision for yourself and determine what will be worse for you and the baby, on drugs or not.  If you ever have any questions feel free to message me.  If you decide to go off, know that it will be a rough couple of weeks but that it does get better.  Oh yeah, go off slowly, keep cutting your pills in half, every week (ie. 3/4 pill first week, half pill second week, etc.)

CapeSummer21

I'm on cymbalta for now, and waiting to see if my OBGYN wants to switch to a different drug tomorrow when I have my first appointment. I also was told by both doctors, that it is better to wean yourself off towards the end of pregnancy. The reason is, if you deliver a baby who has been on the meds, chances are the baby will go thru withdrawal and may need some time in NICU. I plan on tapering off before 3rd trimester. However, I also have been in a position recently where I know I cannot be off of all meds, so the doctors agree it is better to be on something.

annam829

idk about each ssri...

my dr said the safest would be zoloftt and 2nd is prozac..

paxil being the worst...i am not sure where celexa falls...

i think it is totally a case by case basis,  it is not good and all for the baby if mommy cant function.  it is such a tough call...my heart goes out to everyone with this problem, it is rough. 

supersmile4

I am only on 20mg so it isn't alot.  I was taking it for anxiety.  I used to take zoloft but then got switched to celexa because we thought it was causing me to be tired all the time.

dstar

I wish they had more studies because I think it would have been easier to stay on.  But the dr. said, no pregnant women wants to risk the health of her baby to be in a drug study.  I don't know but I might have considered it.  This was a very hard decision on our family but it is kind of nice to know that there are women in the same boat.  I actually felt bad bringing it up before because I did not want to be flamed for really wanting to stay on the meds.  Mom and DH talked me into going off, not something I really wanted to do because I have tried to go off them before and I knew the withdrawal period was horrible. 

annam829

dstar--you are def not alone...it is a very hard decision and i feel it is entirely up to the individual...if u ever need to talk page me

the past few weeks i have been going through with, so bad that i feel like i am being electrocuted from head to toe...and jumping out of mu skin...

think of it this way though...it is an awful feeling but would you want to risk your baby feeling like that...good luck st choosing whatever decision is right for YOU

julybaby23

I think it is an extremely hard decision for you. I was on prozac and many other SSRIs for many years. In the last year I have been tapering off and then when TTC I tapered off completely. I have read that prozac is the best one for tapering, but maybe not for pregnancy. I took it once a day, then once every other day, then once a week until I was not taking it at all.

Though I am not very far along I definitely feel like I'm in a hormonal cloud and thus safe from depression (right now, anyway-- I hope it lasts). I have not looked back (yet) but I can guarantee you that I will be back on prozac after this birth to avoid post partum depression.

Hope this helps!

ac_in_dc

FWIW, I'm pretty sure I talked about the 2% heart trouble study dstar mentions with my psychiatrist. She said that she didn't like the study because it didn't control for either maternal age or other risk factors like smoking, so she suspects the results are artificially inflated.

Whatever, I'm not a doctor. I can't say what's right. But I would encourage you to speak to a psychiatrist and not just a general practitioner or OB, because they have more time to read and evaluate this specific literature.

Good luck. (and wish me luck with my continue tapering, mmkay?)