According to my medication box of Lexapro (citalopram), the active chemical FULLY enters your plasma in 7 days..so you're at work strength in 7 days. Why then does everyone normally say it takes 4-6 weeks for the drugs to really kick in/start working?
Answer:
Usually SSRIs take anything between one and four weeks to really kick in - Prozac can sometimes take up to six weeks.
People respond differently, so some people will feel a difference sooner than others.
The crucial thing with these drugs is the dosage: you can be on the right medication, but the wrong dose. If it's too low, or too high, it won't help. So give it two or three weeks and then review how you feel. If you're worse, or the same, speak to your doctor and see what he suggests.
Don't change the dose on your own; always get medical advice.
My personal experience, having tried three SSRIs, is that it does take a good four weeks to start feeling any benefit from them.
it will get into your body within a few days but to see the effect you have to wait for a few weeks
It does not take 4-6 weeks for these types of med to work and I am not sure where you heard this but it is not true. Normally it takes up to 2 weeks to see the full effect of those types of medications. Lexapro is one that is different in that it only takes 7 days.
Lexapro is one of the few Antidepressants that enter the blood stream more rapidly. I too am on Lexapro and I wondered the same thing. Though I started feeling the beneficial effects within the week, it did take about 4-6 weeks before my body had fully acclimated to the drug and I stopped with all the weird side effects like yawning all the time. Your best bet is to wait 2 months before deciding if it is something you can live with. I wanted to stop the third week because I felt like I was coming out of my skin, but now I am thankful everyday I took it. The 4-6 weeks of hell is a distant memory and I feel like my old self again.
Two things to say on the subject:
There is a wide range of elimination rates between people, and that affects the time it takes to achieve a steady state blood level.
Therefore, you have to consider when you do get a therapeutic level, is the body going to accumulate more to reach a toxic level?
The second thing I have to say is that the vast majority of people on these drugs are the result of misleading marketing efforts by the psych/pharmaceutical industry. It really is the practice of sorcerery that is warned of in the bible.
These drugs can cause in some people side effects where the person wants to crawl out of their skin, and they have an intense feeling of being late. Order them around like a boss or a parent, and they can turn extremely violent.
I'm not familiar with Lexapro, but more recent antidepressants affect more than seratonin. They also affect norepinephrine and dopamine. While the seratonin may take weeks to be affected, norepinephrine is affected almost immediately, certainly within the first week. So the newer antidepressants seem to kick in within days as opposed to weeks. I think there was a problem with waiting six to eight weeks for a sign the medication was working. Especially if it wasn't.
It depends if you have ocd it takes longer
I have ocd and depression and it started working in2/12 weeks DEPENDS ON THE PERSON
They say 4- 6 weeks because that's about how long it takes to get addicted to the drug..
The drug companies and psychiatrists really want you to take it for the rest of your life regardless of whether or not it works for you..
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