Hi all,

My wife has recently begun to experience pre-menopausal mood swings, and her physician has her on Lexapro, 10 mg, in order to control them. I can attest that she's her pleasant self again since she started, unlike the person I didn't recognize when her body was changing and snapping at the littlest thing.

Well, that was fine and good as long as we had a medical plan that capped our out-of-pocket cost of this drug to $25 per month. Next year, most of us will be moved into a high-deductible HSA where the full cost of the drug is out of pocket until the deductible is met. As a result, until the deductible is paid we would face the entire cost of the medication, which appears to be over $80 per month (30 tablets, 10 mg).

As I did more research, it really looks like Lexapro isn't much different than its older cousin, Celexa. Some in the medical field have cynically remarked that Lexapro was a slight reformulation to Celexa just to keep the patent and the gravy train going.

Celexa has a generic equivalent now which is about $10 for a 30-day supply.

We're not looking for advice apart from what her doctor recommends, but we'd like for her to go in there well-informed and with as much information as possible. So with that disclaimer out of the way...

Is there really much of a difference in terms of efficacy with these two medications? What I think I might like is to have her use the generic Celexa equivalent for a few days to see if it's equally effective and causes no side effects. If there were a problem, we'd go back to Lexapro, but from everything I've seen they look almost identical.

So I think this is something I'll want her to ask her doctor before we have to buy a refill in January. But in the meantime, other opinions -- particularly from medical professionals and those who have taken both -- would be greatly appreciated.