Lexapro vs Cymbalta
Both are SSRIs & SNRIs. Here is how Lexapro and Cymbalta compare on class, mechanism, dosing, approval and supply.
At a glance
Key differences
- Same class. Both Lexapro and Cymbalta are SSRIs & SNRIs, so they work through the same broad mechanism. Differences between them tend to be about dosing, route, how selective they are, and side effects rather than what they target.
- Time on the market. Lexapro was first approved by the FDA in 2002, Cymbalta in 2004. That gives Lexapro roughly 2 more years of real-world use and long-term safety data.
- Who markets them. Lexapro is marketed by AbbVie; Cymbalta by Eli Lilly.
- Same drug, more than one brand. Escitalopram is sold as Lexapro / Cipralex — the same active ingredient marketed under different brand names, typically for different approved uses or doses.
What each one treats
Lexapro is indicated for the treatment of: • major depressive disorder (MDD) in adults and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older. • generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) in adults and pediatric patients 7 years of age and older. Lexapro is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) indicated for the: treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) in adults and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older ( 1 ) treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) in adults and pediatric patients 7 years and older ( 1 )
An oral daily medication used to treat depression, anxiety, neuropathic pain, and fibromyalgia.
How each one works
12.1 Mechanism of Action The mechanism of antidepressant action of escitalopram, the S-enantiomer of racemic citalopram, is presumed to be linked to potentiation of serotonergic activity in the central nervous system (CNS) resulting from its inhibition of CNS neuronal reuptake of serotonin (5-HT).
An oral daily medication used to treat depression, anxiety, neuropathic pain, and fibromyalgia.
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Which medicine is right for a given person depends on their diagnosis, other conditions, other medicines, kidney and liver function, pregnancy, and cost or reimbursement — none of which this page knows. Two drugs in the same class are not automatically interchangeable. Never start, stop or switch a prescription medicine on the basis of a web page; that decision belongs to you and your clinician or pharmacist.
How this page is built
The facts on this page are pulled directly from official U.S. FDA datasets — they are not written from memory. Each field below names the dataset it came from, so you can check it yourself.
- FDA Drug Label (openFDA) ↗ Indications, mechanism of action and pharmacologic class
- Drugs@FDA ↗ First FDA approval date and the company holding the application
- FDA Drug Shortage Database ↗ Current US supply / shortage status
Plain-English summaries and drug-class explainers are written and reviewed by Sreepriya Prasannan (MSc Digital Transformation of Life Sciences (Innopharma Education / Griffith College); MSc & BSc Botany). Data is retrieved automatically from the sources above and cross-checked with AI-assisted verification (Anthropic's Claude) — brand and generic names are matched against the exact FDA product record so that a combination product or a different formulation cannot be mistaken for the drug on this page. An editor reviews the result before publication. We describe this in full in our editorial standards and corrections policy. The FDA data on this page was last retrieved on 6 Oct 2026. How every register is built: methodology · fixes we have made: corrections log.