sertraline

[sweetpotato]

Hi,

My partner has been taking Sertaline for just over two years. She was on 150mg but recently things have been pretty bad for her and her doctor put her up to 200mg and then a month later 250mg. This seems a really high dose to me. I'm worried that putting up her dose this high maybe dangerous.

Does anybody have experience of this level of Sertaline ?

The other things that concerns me is some of the side effects. I'm going to find this really hard to explain, but when my partner is having a hard time it's as if she doesn't have full control of herself. Her movements are just totally off .... if that makes any sense. It's as if she is drunk, but she'e not. Her hands get really sore as she is clenching they all the time. And she just can't sit still.

Does this sound familiar to anybody ?

Thanks very much.

[lightenup]

Not fully sure but I thought 200mg was the max, I have been on them a while and also additionally 45mg Mertazapine and now on Lithium, becauses apparently I have drug resistant depression.  Ha wish I could come off some of this crap, however it will take up to 6 weeks for your partner for the meds to settle down, if things are not great she may need some additional drugs.  Good luck, this is such an awful thing "£" 

[cornish]

i have experience with high dosages, dont worry too much about that dosage. it is higher than normal but its not anywhere near dangerous. 300 is normally the highest prescribed, but even 400 can be prescribed.

how long has she been on the higher dosage for ?
some of the effects from higher dosages will lessen with time, but it can take a lot longer for them to lessen than the lower dosage effects.

it makes perfect sense to me and is VERY familiar.

[solo]

I didn't take a high dose of sertraline but I did have those side-effects when I first started taking them. I would involuntary kick out and my head would nod up and down. If I tried to suppress the tics then it would make it even worse. Sleeping was a nightmare as I couldn't sit still. It was as if they had made my mind sleep but my body awake. I would curl my toes instead of clench my fists. These side-effects wore off slowly over a number of weeks.

[emmietaylor]

I don't experience this amount of this drug but please be wary if your partner gains weight as result of the drug it's common side affect.

[Pete]

I am currently on 200mg of this med and I can say the fist clenching is apparent as is the jaw clenching. It has been said to me I slur slightly at times and appear as if I have had a drink but not drunk.

I was going to speak to the GP about it but it seems this is a usual side effect now

[emmietaylor]

thats what I did and she said it's best if i come off them anyway.

[sweetpotato]

Thanks for the replies, it's helpful.

The side effects only seem to come on when she is very stressed but by no means all the time. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I would have thought that the purpose of the drugs is to stabilise her mood. So to have these symptoms only sometimes does that not suggest that the drug is not working as it should be ?

The last time it took about 3 days for the symptons to go. It was a very stressful time for her so maybe the improvement was just due to her stress levels reducing. But she doesn't seem to be aware of how she is acting. It's scarey to watch but I don't know what to do to help.

But every time she goes to the docs all he seems to do it up the dose but has never suggested that maybe the drug is not as effective as it should be. Does anybody have an thoughts about where my partner should be trying a different drug ?

I know everybody is different but I would just like to understand better.

[cornish]

when im stressed my symptoms get worse and some side effects are magnified.
how does she feel about the medication and how its affected her, positive and negative effects.
how long between the appointments that they increase the dosages ?

[sweetpotato]

Well up until christmas she had been on 150mg for a couple of years. In the second week of january things got tough and she was disiplined at work for having too many absenses. A couple of weeks after the start of this process she went to the doc and he up her dose to 200mg. She went through all the hearings etc and appealed the decision and won .... quite rightly so as the employee had acted incorrectly due to there own policy.

But the day she got the result of the hearing she was in a really bad way. It was as if all the stress of the previous six weeks just the better of her. She was just all over the place, crying one minute, angry the next and had no contol of her movements.

A few days later after a few decent nights sleep she was a bit better. It was then that she went to the docs and he up the dose to 250mg. So there was probably about 5 weeks between the 200 and the 250mg change.

I think she feels compelled to take the medication as I don't think she knows of any alternatives. And she just doesn't realise how bad she gets and she almost forgets about it as soon as it's past. She doesn't want to focus on it. Which in some ways is a really good thing as she is obviously trying not to dwell on it and move on.

But I'm just not convinced the drug is working as it should be. There just seems to be too many times that she is in a pretty bad way as above. At least once a month for 3 to 4 days at a time.

I know there are no rules when dealing with individuals but she is just very volitile. Maybe it is just the way things are with her but I am just hoping things will not always be so hard for her.

Thanks again for reading