Celexa?

duffmaker · February 2013

Hi everyone, I was prescribed Celexa today and was wondering if anyone had any experience with it... and even better, if anyone was taking it now?

Up until I read the bottle when DH brought it home, I had felt that the benefits well out weighed the small risk factor. The OB had said that because I am out of the first trimester it was safe to take and that the only side effects would be during the first week, mainly drowsiness and just a general loopy feeling. BUT the label on the bottle says that if taken in the 3rd trimester, it can cause health problems and withdrawals in the infant... not cool to me and this wasn't mentioned at all in the hospital.

So I'm planning to call my OB tomorrow, and do some more digging before I actually take it.

chelsmcl · February 2013

I would definitely call your doctor tomorrow, that sounds like a pretty serious side effect.

littlenugget613 · February 2013

I was on it prepregnancy. I called them my nice girl pills. They chilled me out, no real side effects. I did quit cold turkey right before I got KU. Yeah dumb move, don't do that. I got horrible "brain zaps" (google it) from the withdrawals.

hjk5000 · February 2013

No personal experience to share but I would probably take it for now and then have a discussion with the doctor ASAP to see if I wanted to continue. Hope you're feeling better!

ilovemarfa · February 2013

My husband is a psychiatric nurse practitioner and he said that he doesn't recommend drugs for anxiety and depression during pregnancy unless the benefit clearly outweighs the risk, like if a person is suicidal, etc. He sees a lot of pregnant women at his private practice as well as the psych ward he works at and he said that he always recommends counseling and therapy before drugs since you never know what affect is has on the baby. My husband is more conservative when t comes to prescribing medication. I would talk to your ob tomorrow and see what they say and I would also talk to the pharmacist because they know a lot more about the possible side effects of drugs. Good luck and I hope you feel better.

ZahraCamille · March 2013

I actually joined (I am pregnant and due in June 2013) because I saw your post. I suffered from depression during my last pregnancy (and PPD) after a lifetime of such issues. I wish so much I had known about bright light therapy, which has been shown to be as effective as antidepressants (statistically) and is safe for pregnant women and their babies.

Here is one brief description of its benefits, from a professor of psychiatry at Yale:
Using Light Therapy for Depression during Pregnancy

During this pregnancy, things are much different for me, but I am using light therapy (and some other approaches) to keep myself on an even keel. I bought my therapy light for $160 at this site, which is also credible and has good information. (You can't just buy any light--it needs to be a 10,000 lux and able to be angled about 15 degrees from your face. Usually 30 minutes in the early morning is the typical treatment.) Insurance may cover all or part of the light if you can get a doctor to fill out a form from the site. Even though this is a very research-proven method of treating depression, most doctors aren't aware of it.

. Make sure also that your vitamin D levels are good--it's a typical test the doctor can do, and if you are deficient the supplements are very cheap. I had slightly low D levels, and getting them up to normal made all the difference for me.

EPA (omega-3) can also help with depression and help prevent PPD. I take an algae-sourced EPA.

I also would recommend regular gentle exercise, maybe after you start feeling a bit better from the light therapy. And if you have the resources for it, the right therapist or support group can make a world of difference. You are not alone in this!

My heart goes out to you. Depression during pregnancy is so hard.

emolm · March 2013

I'm on 40 mg a day. I was on 40 mg a day with B too and he's normal and we didnt have any issues. I still breastfeed with his pedi's approval; his weight was watched just to make sure any celexa induced sleepiness didn't affect weight gain.

For me, the benefits totally outweigh the risks bc it keeps me from sliding into a deep depression, neglecting my family's needs, and slitting my wrists wide open.

emolm · March 2013

I didn't start celexa until after about six months of therapy and continues therapy for a couple years and still go periodically.

My OB and I are currently deciding whether or not to switch me to Zoloft but only bc it's an older drug with more research and is considered safer bc of the oldness. It's kind of like how Benadryl is safer than Zyrtec but it's mostly bc of age and masses of research due to its age.

Anyways def talk to your dr and start therapy too if you can. I think this is an ideal time to start meds though bc you'd have time to switch to something else if you need to.

ariaforte8 · March 2013

My therapist told me information that OB didn't mention. Many antidepressants impair lung development in the third trimester. She urged me to be off of the antidepressants in the third tri, and I took her advice. I take her knowledge very seriously because she deals with these meds on a daily basis, rather than my OB who doesn't.

ETA: Still, it's all about the pros and cons. If your anxiety caused the episode you had, I would probably decide to take the meds if I were you.

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