Lexapro (Escitalopram), anyone?

Post Reply New Topic

Was wondering if anyone here took Lexapro (that is the U.S. trade name... the generic name is Escitalopram), and if so, what their experiences with it are (or were)?

Bill, aka Frieslander.

I was on it when I was younger. It... didn't really help with depression or my anxiety. It did, however, make me sleepy. But medicines effect everyone different.

I'm supposed to take it with my Welbutrin. It works great together like that and I've never felt better than when I'm on both. However it's two hundred something a month and without insurance I can't afford it. I barely afford my Welbutrin and buy it by the week for $11.88 for 14 pills.

If it doesn't work well for you after a few weeks, ask about combining it with Welbutrin. That was amazing for me. A true miracle.

I took Lexapro for depression and it worked very well for me.
It basically made me feel like my depression was half better. If I accidently forgot to take it one night though, the next day I would feel back to being completely depressed and awful. But I had no side effects with it. Though I did notice the first week I took it that it made me feel jittery, like what coffee can do.
I was supposed to be on it for a year, but after 6 months, I stopped and my depression was pretty much gone.

Oh about the cost, my psychiatrist was very kind. My mom and I would ask for sample boxes at my appointments because of the money, and he would give us handfuls of sample boxes for free. Very nice person.

It worked very, very well for me, but I always caution people that every medicene affects every individual differently. Prozac was an absolute nightmare for me but a lifesaver to many others.

Citalopram is practically identical and cheaper because it's generic.

Citalopram does not quite equal Escitalopram. Citalopram (Celexa), I believe, is a combination of both two enantiomers, the right-handed and the left-handed (hello, mv, can you verify if I am saying right?). I am not enough of a chemist of a chemist, really, to explain what this means; I have a biology degree with chemistry minor.

Escitalopram is purely (or early-purely) one of the enantiomers. Lexapro works MUCH better for me, and I believe Lexapro gets broken in the liver more less quickly.

BOTH are available in generic form in the U.S. right now.

It's hard to get escitalopram on the NHS here, I think. I don't know, because I've always responded to citalopram.

EDIT: I've just looked it up because the cost to the NHS for a monthly course of citalopram is about £1.80, whereas excitalopram cost between £15 and £25. In the UK, everyone pays £7 something for prescriptions unless they are on benefits/welfare.

The two certainly isomers, but not necessarily entiomers. I just had to correct myself.

Didnt work all that well for me, I guess it made me slightly happier when i was on 30mg a day, but didnt touch my anxiety and actually made it a bit worse. Also after 4 months I had some blood tests done and found out that the tablets were causing me to have abnormal liver function, so I got off them, which resulted in severe rebound anxiety and depression. Started taking Buspirone last week and its already seeming to have an effect, but my main problem was anxiety, i dont know what your reasons are for taking escitalopram and like other people have said, everyones experience with it is unique. Hope it works for you.