Is It Safe To Have 20mg Of Lexapro For OCD?

Posted on Mon, 27 Oct 2014

Question: I am on Solian (amisulpride) 100 mg, Keppra 1000mg as mood stabilizer, Klonopin 2 mg and Lexapro 15 mg. I have some OCD symptoms, since in my case Solian 100 mg provoques them at 5HT7 and 5HT2b receptors with some dopaminergic effects, so my doctor decided 6 weeks ago to give me a higher dosage of Lexapro, from 2.5 mg to 15 mg (i am a poor metabolizer for cyp2c19 and probably mild for cyp2d6). I am on Lexapro 15 mg for two weeks and a half and i was before on 10 mg during more or least three weeks. Until one week and a half ago, my improvement was more or least 70 % and i was waiting for a full improvement, but it is not coming yet. So my psychiatrist decided to give me now 20 mg of Lexapro and i would like to know if i can expect a full improvement (100%) of my OCD symptoms in two or three weeks, because everything is going very slowly.
Thanks beforehand

Answered by Dr. Dr. Chintan Solanki (3 hours later)

Brief Answer:
70-80% chances of complete improvement

Detailed Answer:
Hello Dear,

Welcome back and thanks for follow up as regular with us.

As in our previous discussion on 1st October I mentioned to increase the dose to 20 mg, you are on right path.You shold wait at least for 3 weeks to see the optimum effects of that dose. Considering your past history and response to lexapro, I guess there are 70-80% of chances of 100% improvement with 20 mg.
However, though metabolic problem, you have tolerated lexapro well, I think you can still tolerate more dose if by chance some improvement remains at 20 mg.

Dear, you need to understand and accept the fact that in OCD improvement is always slowly and gradually but it is there for sure.The patients who respond to the treatment well, almost 70% of them get 100 % improvement in long run.

All the best & Regards.

Dr.Chintan Solanki.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T