Citalopram
Shares rank 8 of 11 antidepressants by recommenders
Some people say it works strongly and greatly improves quality of life. Common caveat: severe withdrawal symptoms when stopping, and side effects like emotional numbness.
Some people say it works strongly and greatly improves quality of life. Common caveat: severe withdrawal symptoms when stopping, and side effects like emotional numbness.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 38%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 15 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Strongly effective for some people
“the difference in quality of life it made for me is hard to put into words”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants” “This just goes to show that for me, they're extremely effective.”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants” “They work exceptionally well for some people (myself included).”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Severe withdrawal symptoms when stopping
“I went cold turkey off of citalopram when I was a teenager and it was a pretty unpleasant two weeks of heart palpitations”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal” “Withdrawing from citalopram after dropping out of college was one of the worst summers of my life.”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal” “even on my own super slowed down schedule I still experienced massive side effects”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal” - Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal”
Palpitations, tremors and stiffness
“I went cold turkey off of citalopram when I was a teenager and it was a pretty unpleasant two weeks of heart palpitations”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal” “got tremors and stiffness so bad I thought I had early-onset Parkinson”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants”
Other antidepressants people recommend
The four most recommended other antidepressants, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 11 antidepressants, rankedWhat people said
14 of the 15 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Withdrawing from citalopram after dropping out of college was one of the worst summers of my life.”
“I wanted to stop taking it because of the emotional numbness”
“even on my own super slowed down schedule I still experienced massive side effects”
“I went cold turkey off of citalopram when I was a teenager and it was a pretty unpleasant two weeks of heart palpitations”
“I have serious withdrawal reactions to Citalopram”
“The side effects are suicidal ideation and brain zaps”
“10 mg a day, down from 20 but that made me feel wired, like I ate a bunch of 9V batteries for breakfast.”
“got tremors and stiffness so bad I thought I had early-onset Parkinson”
“the difference in quality of life it made for me is hard to put into words”
“it is really strange, then I looked up how SSRIs can impact this and even bone healing”
“It did... 10%? of what citalopram eventually did for me.”
“It did not suit me and made my orgasms go from 'wtf' to 'that's it?'”
“They work exceptionally well for some people (myself included).”
“This just goes to show that for me, they're extremely effective.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.