Posted by Patient on January 14, 2004, at 16:44:41
Hi,
I wanted to post this in case others enjoy eating grapefruit (as I do), or drinking grapefruit juice while taking certain drugs. This information has probably been posted before-this is just a cautionary reminder.
My drug regimen until recent was 25mg trazodone about 8or9A.M., in late afternoon, and bedtime; as well as 10mg citalopram (Celexa) in mid morning. Celexa was just started about a week ago because of deep depression and severe irritability not helped by trazodone. I've been on traz. for a month. As of yesterday I started taking trazodone 25mg only at bedtime since trazodone can cause possible Celexa toxicity. No more depression since taking Celexa, as well as no more irritability. Sleep well from trazodone. Just a bit of daytime sleepiness about an hour or two after Celexa, followed by slight stimulation that lasts until evening-the usual SSRI start-up stimulation. All was well until today:
This late morning I had half a grapefruit with a late breakfast. I forgot about possible drug interactions with this fruit until after I ate the grapefruit. I decided to skip the Celexa. For the rest of the day I was unusually nervous, finger-chewing day, and heart rate up.
I thought it might be from the grapefruit I had first time this citrus season. I doubt it's from skipping Celexa, because it usually makes me a bit stimulated/on the nervous side about 3+ hrs. after taking it. I took 25mg traz. at noon to help relax me, which it always does an hour or less after taking it, as it did when I took it this morning. But this time it didn't do a thing.
From what I've read about Celexa's metabolism and how it has little effect on certain major enzymes, I didn't think I had to worry about eating grapefruit while taking this SSRI. But, it too can have possible reactions. Grapefruit certainly can interact with trazodone.
I did some searching and found the following information:
http://www.mhsource.com/expert/exp1111003e.html
Ask the Expertand how grapefruit's effects can last up to a day, according to some research:
http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:QDXj5dO5WcMJ:www.healthcentral.com/peoplespharmacy/pp_guides/PDF/gfruit02.pdf+trazodone+grapefruit&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
poster:Patient
thread:300793
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040114/msgs/300793.html