Reviews for LEXAPRO81 ratings: (taken because of OCD)Edit Filter | Clear FilterCompare LEXAPRO with similar:
Type: Rx Drug
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Results are sorted by Date added. Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.) |
| RATING | REASON | SIDE EFFECTS FOR LEXAPRO | COMMENTS | SEX | AGE | DURATION/ DOSAGE | DATE ADDED |
| 5 | Anxiety/OCD | GI discomfort (temporary), dry mouth (temporary), bizarre dreams. | Taken on and off for approximately 17 years. I have been Lexapro-free for periods of time but a stressful situation would trigger a panic response and I would need to restart. Psych most recently increased my dosage from 20mg to 30mg 6 months ago to address severe OCD symptoms: mainly intrusive thoughts and panic. I could not go a single day without multiple panic attacks or racing thoughts about my death or the deaths of my loved ones. I could barely function. I don't love being on Lexapro but it changed my life for the better. | F | 35 | 17 years 30mg 1X day | 9/9/2025 | 4 | Depression/Anxiety/OCD | Weight gain of about 4lbs, dry mouth, sweating | This medicine at 5 mg has greatly helped my depression and it's blanketed my anxiety just a little bit. I am currently moving up to 10 mg to help the anxiety and the OCD more but my depression is gone. | F | 49 | 7 months 5 1X day | 11/4/2023 | 4 | Anxiety & OCD | - Fatigue and weak body especially in the arms & legs - Insomnia - Restless leg syndrome (they're most noticeable in the day time after taking it in the morning it's much harder to nap) - Increase appetite & weight gain - Decrease in my impulse control | This medication is amazing. I have only been on it for a couple weeks and I am pretty amazed how much it's helping. I cannot state enough how unbelievably horrible my anxiety, OCD, & depression had gotten. Every waking moment I riddled with an endless cycle of thoughts I would never be free from. Within a month my anxiety has dramatically reduced & I am already back to functioning & doing things throughout the day again. I would rate it a 5 if it wasn't for the side effects, the weight gain & fatigue being the most difficult. I am going to talk to my doctor about Wellbutrin at our next appointment, I've heard that can help sometimes. With your doctor's permission, give Lexapro some time to take effect before you write it off. Some of the most helpful medications are given up on because when all people experience is the negative side effects at first they don't see the point and want to stop. But it works for many if you hang in there & give it a chance. Hope this helped! Everything is going to be okay, we're on this tiny rock floating through space, we don't need to carry the weight of the world, let's just try to enjoy the ride. :) | F | 30 | 3 months 10 1X day | 3/12/2023 | 4 | OCD, MDD, Anxiety | Light sleepiness. For the first few weeks it was quite a bit of fatigue, but after that passed it wasn't so bad. | It helped with depression, but even at the highest dose it was like it wasn't strong enough. I took it for about a year. | F | 26 | 0 days | 6/5/2022 | 3 | GAD, OCD, and depression | emotional numbness, low sex drive, depression, drowsiness, huge weight gain | worst medicine only helped anxiety but at the cost of ruining many other parts of my life | F | 18 | 3 years 20mg | 1/24/2021 | 4 | Anxiety/OCD | Diarrhea, nausea, decreased appetite, stomach pain, heartburn, fatigue, heightened anxiety, slight irritability. | I was TERRIFIED of taking this medication. I decided to push through, I am on day 16. I take it at night because I amless sleepy that way. This week I have experienced slight increase in my anxiety. My OCD has subsided though no more intrusive thoughts. I am hoping the longer I take it the less anxious I will feel, other than that the meds seem to be working greatly! | F | 28 | 16 days 10mg 1X day | 9/18/2020 | 4 | Anxiety and OCD | I have always suffered with Severe OCD, it had severely impacted almost every single aspect of my life which lead me to severe crippling Anxiety, Social Anxiety, Panic Disorder and Mild Depression. I tried numerous types of Medication, even the BIG ONE - Anafranil, I remained on this medication for several months on a high dosage, it assisted with the OCD (not so much with Anxiety) however the side effects were utterly terrible so decided to give it up. My psychiatrist suggested Lexapro, began on 5mg and slowly work my way up to 30mg (currently on this dosage for the last three months). Pros: Anxiety has greatly reduced, very few panic attacks, hasn't stopped the thoughts however they have become much easier to brush off, I am able to think more rationally, and I feel somewhat more hopeful and optimistic. Cons: Constantly tired, extremely sleepy (I could sleep all day if I wanted to) and at times I feel somewhat emotionally numb. | M | 29 | 4 months 30MG | 12/17/2018 | 4 | Anxiety, Depression, Panic, BP2,OCD | Lack of motivation & excitement. Always wanting to feel more pumped up about life. Loss of interest in work, previous goals and projects. Less empathy towards others. More pessimistic, some weight gain. Some headaches in the beginning. | Even with all the side effects, I do want to say Lexapro has it's purpose! It cut down my panic and anxiety probably about by 75 to 80%. This medication could be really useful when getting over a loss of a loved one or coming out of a co-dependent relationship. One huge plus is I don't feel that extreme neediness in my relationship or pressure to have to impress friends and people in general. Music seems to sound better overall and I feel like it is easier to face my fears. I don't take very much because I am very sensitive to medications. So far the best I have felt with it is when I miss a day or two and then take it again. I think they call it a Lexapro holiday. Please discuss that with your doctor before trying that. In general I think it is a very gentle drug to get in your system and would be great to use to get through major anxiety, loss or major stresses in life. I'd like to take something that would help motivate me more while taking Lexapro like maybe Welbutrin? I'm going to discuss it with my doctor. If not I'll probably ween down off of it after awhile and see how I feel without it. I do really miss being pumped up and motivated about my goals and creative projects, and I think it has caused a bit of disconnect in my relationships with others. Overall it was one of the most pleasant experiences I have had with an SSRI. Please feel free to e-mail me if I can help answer any questions. | M | 41 | 7 months 2.5 to 3mg 1X day | 1/8/2018 | 1 | Anxiety OCD depression | Increased anxiety, mania, crying spells, increased fear, jaw pain, suicidal thoughts | I’ve tried 5 antidepressants until I found the right one (Paxil) and lexapro was the worst of all | F | 54 | 3 months | 12/28/2017 | 4 | Severe depression, GAD, OCD | First few weeks I suffered pretty terrible gastrointestinal issues (mainly the runs), headache, increased anxiety and insomnia. Generally the only side effect that remained throughout was insomnia and wiping REM sleep from the cycle (no dreams) | Worked pretty well overall but not the best for depression as it targets mainly anxiety. The insomnia got pretty annoying but i worked in hospitality at the time so I just accepted it. Very hard to go on and get off but generally with any ADs (excluding neuroleptics etc) the long term benefits outweigh the unpleasantness... | F | 32 | 6 years 20mg | 8/21/2016 | 5 | Anxiety, panic attacks, OCD | Slight nausea the first week (transition period) | Really helped me. I had chronic anxiety and would have panic attacks, random crying spells, migraines from the stress and vomiting due to the anxiety. Pretty much since taking this pill I noticed a HUGE improvement in my daily life. I still have worries but it is about normal things. I rarely get migraines now, nor have I vomited from stress in months. I also sleep way better at night. I haven't had any side effects apart from the first week. | F | 22 | 6 months 10mg 1x D | 6/4/2016 | 2 | Anxiety and OCD | Leaves me restless at night, and made me nauseous for the the first few weeks | I've been on it for over a year, increasing from 5 mg t0 20 mg (I've been at 20 for about 6 months) and it has yet to do ANYTHING! Might work better for less severe anxiety/OCD but hasn't done anything to relieve me of my panic attacks or ritualism. | F | 16 | 1 years 20 mg 1X day | 5/13/2016 | 3 | Anxiety, OCD | Really bad nausea for the first two weeks, and full on sleepiness!! This drug made it almost impossible to function as I was napping for 1-2 hours after work and would sleep for 10 hours every night and was still falling asleep at work. | This medicine helped to shut off my racing/obsessive thoughts almost completely. It was so nice to have a clear mind and not be overwhelmed by every day tasks that used to get me panicked. I genuinely never realised just how active my mind was until I started taking this medicine. Unfortunately the drowsiness was unbearable for me and I found it almost impossible to function or move. If it hadn't made me so sleepy I would have stayed on it! | F | 24 | 2 months 10mg 1X day | 2/18/2016 | 4 | GAD, Panic Disorder, Depression,OCD | dry mouth, fatigue, dry eyes, mild effect on sex drive which wore off over time (much better then Paxil!) | Was on Paxil before, in comparison Lexapro easier to tolerate. | F | 27 | 2 years 30mg 1X day | 12/25/2015 | 4 | anxiety, panic disoreder ocd | I really had no side effects until the doc uped my dose to 30mg. its been a month and im still having some | Lexapro I belived saved my life my marriage my sanity | 3o 1X day | 6/24/2015 | 3 | OCD, depression, anxiety | Horribly excessive sweating, bad body odour, and gained 20 lbs. It helped my anxiety a lot at the beginning, but helped less over time. I get pretty anxious a lot again. And now I feel smelly fat and gross all the time. Yay. | F | 22 | 8 months 10 | 7/27/2014 | 4 | Bipolar, Panic Disorder, OCD | Weight gain, lethargy, sweating, vivid dreams. Withdrawal symptoms include; severe dizziness, relapse in all symptoms of bipolar/ ocd symptoms, lethargic, headache, nausea. When started Lexapro, my severe depression has mostly subsided with occasional episodes here and there. Panic attacks gone. Still have racing, intrusive thoughts but not as bad. Still impulsive but not as severe. Basically, this medicine rounds the sharp edges off. Metaphorically speaking, I feel gray instead of just black and white. I am still very over-analitical. I do at times feel slightly "zombified." Relapse of bipolar was imminent when stopped meds due to pregnancy. Was told there was a 1 in 1000 chance of baby being born with congenital heart defect if I continued with medication. Had to start Lexapro again soon after labor. Conclusion: I have been on and have tried many different cocktails of meds and Lexapro has worked the best for me. | F | 30 | 4 years 10 mg | 7/16/2012 | 3 | Anxiety, OCD | I have had a headache for two days now and nothing is helping. I've also been eating every thing in sight! | I was on Lexapro for YEARS until I got pregnant in 09. I stopped the Lexapro (and Wellbutrin) until I had a severe postpartum episode. I called my psych for the first time, at home, and she put me right on the Wellbutrin. I stayed away from Lexapro b/c I read too much about how hard it is to get off and b/c of the brain zaps I had while withdrawing the first time while I was pregnant. I tried Zoloft and Cymbalta over the past year, avoiding the Lexapro. After some unreal rage a few weeks ago I asked if Lexapro would be my best bet since I was on it before. My psych thought it would be a good idea. I started on 10 mg right away and up to 20 mg after 5 days. That was about 3 days ago. I cannot find any other reason for the headache I've had that I cannot find relief for. I have also been eating every thing I see for the past week. Since I was on both this and Wellbutrin (the best one for depression and anxiety in my experience, but just not enough by itself to get rid of the severe anxiety I have) for so many years, I can never really pinpoint a 'side effect'. I blame everything on my anxiety. This HAS to be the Lexapro. I'm going back to 10 and then off if I keep eating like this and this headache doesn't go away. I have a 17 year old, an 18 month old and am in nursing school. I cannot afford to be out of commission for even one day right now. I'm so disappointed. | F | 36 | 10 days 20 1X day | 2/5/2012 | 1 | OCD, Body Dysmorphic Disorder | Severe HAIR LOSS, Worsen my condition | this is the the worst drug i've ever encountered. the side effects are far worse than the illness itself. the fact that it just worsen my ocd. i wish i could turn back time that i am so much better prior taking this drug. NOW I AM DEALING WITH MUCH WORSE CONDITION AND HOPEFULLY REVERSIBLE S.E.. this drug would exacerbate your condition and would give you additional distressing side effect. it is always a must to weigh the benefits & side effects before taking any psychotropic medications these kind of drugs should always be a last resort except for those suicidal, schizophrenic & psychotic patients the first line should be on how you can deal with your condition psychologically not chemically. | M | 30 | 3 months 10 1X day | 1/27/2012 | 4 | depression and OCD | Lexapro help me a lot, helped me not to cry all the time and to control my anxiety better. I had no side effects with lexapro. | F | 39 | 16 months 40 mg 1X day | 9/18/2011 |
LEXAPRO (ESCITALOPRAM OXALATE): Escitalopram is used to treat depression and anxiety. It works by helping to restore the balance of a certain natural substance (serotonin) in the brain. Escitalopram belongs to a class of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI). It may improve your energy level and feelings of well-being and decrease nervousness. (Sources: U.S. Centers for Medicare Services, FDA)