One of the best ways to avoid side effects is to take the medication exactly as prescribed by your doctor. This happens because it takes time for the body to become used to the medication. Some of the most common side effects that people have during their first week of taking Zoloft include:.
Taking Zoloft may make you feel uncomfortable or weird at first as your body starts to process the medication. After a week or two these side effects will go away for most people as their bodies get used to the medication. Zoloft also comes with a box warning for suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
Short-term studies have shown that antidepressants increased the risk of suicidality in children, adolescents, and young adults when compared to a placebo. Nobody is perfect, and missing a dose of Zoloft is bound to happen at one point or another. Simply take the next dose. You can experience side effects and an increased risk of relapse if you suddenly stop your medication. The side effects you might experience if you stop or miss a dose of your medication are mild withdrawal symptoms that happen because of something called antidepressant discontinuation syndrome.
Missing a dose of Zoloft may cause you to have flu-like symptoms, nausea, insomnia, imbalance, or hyperarousal. The best thing you can do if you miss a dose, just as Dr. Wind says, is to take your next dose as soon as you remember. Overdosing on Zoloft is more serious than missing a dose. There are no reported cases of fatal Zoloft overdoses, but taking too much medication can cause serious side effects or health complications.
Accidentally or purposefully taking two or more doses of Zoloft could cause:. In rare cases, taking too much Zoloft can also cause serotonin syndrome, which results in dangerously high levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain.
The unvarnished truth is already known, poor mental health in the UK is on the rise. Between and , 7. This alone has sent the alarm bells ringing, triggering a wave of action from social media campaigns, and the introduction of work mental health first aiders, through to NHS initiatives to improve access to mental health services.
But how does sertraline fit into all this and what is it actually doing to us? Sertraline increases serotonin, a potent neurotransmitter, in your brain. With higher levels of serotonin is thought to come feelings of wellbeing and happiness. It does this by its action as a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor SSRI. As an SSRI, it blocks the uptake of serotonin into cells, thereby leaving the extracellular levels higher, which, we suspect, boosts a positive mood.
Given its potential to boost your mood, sertraline has found itself as part of the management for conditions including moderate to severe depression , panic attacks , generalised anxiety disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder.
One lesser-known role for this SSRI also includes the management of premature ejaculation, but more on that later. If you come and see me at my GP surgery, I explain that the starting dose is 50mg a day in adults. We then up-titrate or down-titrate if you have side effects, for example the dose in 50mg increments over weeks or months depending on how you respond.
The maximum is mg in a day. Courses can last from six months to a lifetime for some. Given the rates of mental health, coupled with our prolific media coverage, you probably know someone who is on an SSRI. In the UK, the commonest include citalopram, fluoxetine Prozac , paroxetine Seroxat and sertraline. London, UK— Pharmacists, who regularly fill prescriptions for Zoloft and its generic equivalents, might be surprised by new research suggesting the early effects may be different from what has been commonly assumed.
A study in The Lancet Psychiatry found that taking sertraline leads to an early reduction in anxiety symptoms, commonly found in depression, several weeks before any improvement in depressive symptoms. The University College of London—led clinical trial is touted as the largest-ever placebo-controlled trial of an antidepressant that was not funded by the pharmaceutical industry. The study also included a wide range of patients, including those with mild-to-moderate symptoms. Essentially, the study found that sertraline did not appear to improve depressive symptoms, which include low mood, loss of pleasure, and poor concentration, within 6 weeks, although weak evidence indicated those results by 12 weeks.
In fact, participants who took sertraline were twice as likely as those who took a placebo to say their mental health had improved.
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