Side fx of Lexapro
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Side fx of Lexapro
| Tue, 09-13-2005 - 7:54pm |
Folks, I have been a little down recently, and think I may need an antidepressant. Wellbutrin doesn't work for me and Lamictal gives me a rash, so I kind of have to take my chances with ones that may make me manic. One that I have not tried yet but has been recommended is Lexapro. What are the effects? Is weight gain one? If that stuff is nasty, particularly with weight gain, I may just tell the pdoc to let me take Prozac for awhile (that works for me in small doses.)
Express!
Beth "Petrouchka"

Beth,
I've been taking Lexapro for a little over a year, 10mg a day which is the standard initial dose (but 20 mg is the highest recommended) and I can't say that I've really noticed a single side effect, except possibly dry mouth, but then I take several other meds that cause that too and didn't notice any increase in the problems I was already having.
Hi Beth,
I only took Lexapro, 10 mgs. for a very short time. So I can't tell you much about side affects. Just wanted to say hello! I'm glad you stopped by.
Hang in there, hon!
Hugs,
Keli
Beth,
I was on Lexapro for about a year. I didn't notice any weight gain on it, and it seemed to help my anxiety, but I had some kind of unusual side effects from it. At first it made my neck and shoulders ache so bad, but that only lasted about two weeks. Then after I was on it about 6 months I started to feel kind of empty and emotionless. I really didn't care about anything and didn't really feel guilty about anything either. It felt almost like I had no conscience. I started drinking more than normal and during that time I cheated on my then husband. Our marriage was basically over when I did that, but he was still hurt by it, but in my mind I was miserable and I knew we were going to separate, so I didn't even feel like I was cheating. That behavior is not me at all, and I didn't want to be like that at all. Also, I didn't like the way the Lexapro made me feel no emotion whatsoever, so I stopped taking the Lexapro. Then my anxiety got really bad until I started on the Effexor. Now I'm sure that isn't a typical side effect of the medication, but I have a friend who is also on Lexapro, and the exact same thing happened to her. She became extremely unhappy in her marriage while she was on it, and started seeing someone else. She felt no guilt about it either. I believe she is also bipolar, and she's trying to get on different meds now. I don't know if maybe Lexapro just doesn't work for bipolar women, or if those are very isolated side effects, but I just thought it was unusal that the same thing happened to someone else. I was on the highest dose then because the lower dose seemed to stop working after about 6 months. Anyway, I hope it works better for you. I'd say it's worth a try, since meds work differently for different people. One good thing about it was that I didn't have any physcial side effects from it, and it actually helped me sleep better.
Good Luck!
Stephanie