Have been prescribed Sertraline any advice

Hello,

I’ve been a member of this wonderful forum for a couple years now and it has really helped. If you’ve read any of my older posts you will see that for the last couple years I have really suffered with crippling anxiety. You name the symptom, I’ve had it! And it all started because of a low moment in my life when I had a biopsy on a black mole, sounds minor and stupid but it really hit home that one day I will die and spiralled from there. It left me with severe anxiety, agoraphobia and depression.

I learned to cope and hide it from people, most of my family don’t understand and simply think I should just “snap out of it”. I can longer go on like this and I am now severely depressed, I mean to the point where I don’t even want to do anything except stare at a wall all day. The anxiety is slowly getting worse as well so my GP has prescribed Sertraline 50mg. I’m worried about taking them and the side effects. I read on the Daily Mail that they are linked to sudden death in 2 people!

Has anyone got any experience with this drug?

Thanks

Hi

This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your post was moved from its original place to a sub-forum that is more relevant to your problem.

This is nothing personal - it just enables us to keep posts about the same problems in the relevant forums so other members with any experience with the issues can find them more easily.

Regards

Elen Admin

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Originally Posted by allen1989

he anxiety is slowly getting worse as well so my GP has prescribed Sertraline 50mg. I’m worried about taking them and the side effects.

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Sertraline is often very effective for both anxiety and depression (which are just differing manifestations of the same underlying brain issue). Whether it is the right med for you can, unfortunately, only be determined by trying it. Forums such as NMP can give a distorted picture about side-effects. Most people experience few, if any significant side-effects. It is the relative few that do that gravitate here. That said, those with anxiety disorders should ideally be started on 25mg for the first week to lessen any side-effects as we tend to be hyper vigilant for any symptoms. You should get your GP's okay before doing this.

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I read on the Daily Mail that they are linked to sudden death in 2 people!

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Ah, yes, the Daily Mail, the medical journal of record for all psychopharmacological research. :emot-fail: What does it propose as the cause of these deaths?

ADs do not usually kill those taking them. It would be bad for business. With maybe one or two exceptions (not sertraline) SSRIs are the safest ADs even in massive overdose. It was the main reason SSRIs are now the preferred ADs.

I was on it for a couple of years.
I found it better to take 25mg for the first week then increase.
In the time I was on it I gained 16kg without any changes to diet or eating habits.
Changed to Lexapro and dropped 10kg again without changing anything.
Just can't get the last 6kg to shift.