Forgot To Take Citalopram, Having Bad Anxiety And Racing Thoughts. Can I Take Clonazapam?

Posted on Fri, 20 Sep 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Fri, 20 Sep 2013 Answered on

Mon, 14 Oct 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : I forgot to take my citalopram for the past 3 days, and I'm having really bad anxiety and racing thoughts, can I take .5mg of clonazapam for the anxiety? I'm out of State on my honeymoon, so this isn't making for a nice time.

Answered by Dr. Seikhoo Bishnoi (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Hello

Detailed Answer:
Welcome to Health Care Magic

You forgot to take Citalopram for past 3 days and this has progressed to severe anxiety, uncontrolled thoughts. Citalopram is a SSRI drug and it works by increasing serotonergic transmission in brain. There are two possible causes of your anxiety-

One most likely reason is withdrawal syndrome of SSRIs. Sudden stoppage of SSRI without tapering the dose may result in such symptoms of anxiety associated with irritability. Clonazepam 0.5 mg may help in some symptomatic control but I would recommend you to take at least half the dose of Citalopram which you were taking. This will result in decrease in symptoms. Most likely the symptoms are due to withdrawal only.

Other possible reason is increase in anxiety itself. Clonazepam will control the symptoms for some time.

If possible take Omega 3 Fatty Acid Soft gels and diet XXXXXXX in milk, curd, carbohydrates. These will help in early resolution.

Hope this helps you, If you have more questions you can ask again.

Thanks

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar