Those Diagnosed Mvp'ers Thoughts On Celexa/citalropram And Safety??

[adigitalashley57]

Hi all!!

So i will throw this question out there into the deep void and will be very curious of everyone's responses.

As I am sure most of you know Celexa and Lexapro were both given a new warning in 2011 that at high doses above 40mg. they increased the chances of Prolonged QT interval Syndrome.

So I am on 20mg of Celexa as of now and was on 10mg of it for 7months of last year and I just cant shake this feeling that I am not comfortable with taking the 20mg. Again I am no where near the dose that produced symptoms in trials. But saying that I still don't know where my comfort level is with this medicine.I have tried to do some google searches on the matter and only find the news articles related to the warning, not anything directly correlated to heart/valve abnormalities and the risks with taking these meds.

It works very well for me in controlling my Dysautonomia. But saying that I do have Mild/moderate Mitral valve Prolapse with regurgitation. So i am having quite the quandary....

I would be very very curious of others opinions on this specific matter and whether any one else has been through this as well. I'm very curious of who is still taking this medicine with the new heart related warnings or have others gone off of it or decreased their dose??

I think its great to shed light on these little medicine questions as maybe they might not relate to most in the general public but might have a HUGE effect on us and our community. And its really important for us to stay current on information like this!!

xo

ashley

[Libby]

Well, from what I understand, Long QT Syndrome happens because of an issue with the sodium/potassium channels in the heart. Once the heart beats, it has to wait a certain amount of time to 'recharge' the nerve cells. The cells can't make the heart beat again unless they're fully recharged. Sodium/potassium pumps play a huge role in that, generating the charge in the cells. If they're slow to do that, the time in between beats is prolonged - hence long QT. There are some other factors that go into it, calcium pumps and whatnot, but that's the basic gist of it.

I haven't really looked into the warnings on Celexa/Lexipro, honestly. But if they're for Long QT Syndrome, and if you have MVP without any evidence of Long QT Syndrome, I wouldn't be too concerned about it causing a problem. MVP is usually due to a structural abnormality - a thickening of the valve or a valve that is single or bi-leaflet.