Sertraline

[Gillybean123]

hi everyone, does anyone else take Sertraline. My doctor prescribed it to try and help me with whatever. I took one then looked at the paper in the box and the part of it about other medications was four of mine. I messaged her yesterday and she said this was the antidepressant choice for cardiac patients but I have took any more as am really unsure about whether to take it. Thoughts please? X

[Paulbounce]

Hi Gilly.

Yes me ! My doctor put me on a small daily dose just over 6 weeks ago. Being honest I wasn't really to keen as I want to cut down on med's not start taking more. However it can help clam you down - which in turn can help keep your HR down so I thought I would give it a go.

First of all it takes a few weeks to 'kick in' and about 6 weeks for your body to adust and to take full effect. I looked in to it and possible side effects can be an increased HR or a lower HR. However this is fairly rare and I discussed it with my cardio. He said the dose I'm on (50mg a day) is a starter dose but not to increase above 75mg if the doc decides to. I won't though and will stick to the lower dose.

Now side effects. My doctor put it very politey and said I would have 'loose stools'. Wow you can say that again and I could describe it in another way ! For the first few weeks make sure your near a loo after you eat - be warned.

Apart from that I haven't had any problems at all. I think you can take up to 200mg a day but no way would I do that. It doesn't make you feel sleepy or anything like that either - some med's do. If your doctor has given you the green light to take it then it should be fine except for 'loose stools'.

Paul

[Pita]

I am taking Sertraline, my gp put me on a low dose of 25mg to start off for 2 weeks then 50mg 6 weeks ago, it has only just started to work. Depending how I am in 2 weeks time my gp may up it to 100mg, which I really don't want, but as I have C-PTSD I may need it at 100mg. So far no side affects.

[Gillybean123 in reply to Pita]

thank you Pita. X

[jowalk6]

Hi Gillybean, I am on 100mg of sertraline daily. It has been fine with all my other medication. I have also done CBT and EMDR therapy x

[Gillybean123 in reply to jowalk6]

thank you. I was worried about my other medication I am only on my third day. But everything ok. X

[Gillybean123 in reply to jowalk6]

hi there what other medication do you take if you don’t mind me asking.

[jowalk6 in reply to Gillybean123]

I take apixaban, bisoprolol amlodepine, folic acid, atorvastatin, furosemide, metformin and ramipril .

[SuziElley]

maybe the best person to talk to is your pharmacist if you worried about interactions with other meds. They really are well trained and able to help with a lot of things. They’re the ones who have studied about meds in depth

[Robbo1975]

Hi

I use 50mg of sertraline everyday and have for 5 years before I started with AF

I have no side effects and if anything chills me right out that in turn keeps my heart rate down

[Auriculaire]

Hi Gillybean- you say your doctor prescribed this to help with "whatever" . My first thought would be "what is 'whatever'? " and do I really need an antidepressant to help with it. Especially if you are taking a lot of other medications. Antidepressants do not work any better than placebo for a lot of people and stopping taking them can lead to symptoms far worse than those which provoked their prescription. They are prescribed too readily for "unhappiness" which is part of life rather than true depression. They are also prescribed for anxiety since the prescription of drugs like Valium and Librium which are true anti anxiety drugs was mostly stopped because of their addictive nature.

[Teresa156]

Hi GillyBean123,

I tried four different anti depressants last year while going through a rough period of high anxiety at the time, but unfortunately, I couldn’t get past the first one or two weeks with any of them, as they increase anxiety initially and really made me feel worse. Unfortunately, due to the anxiety, I noticed every little (and large) side effect, which worried me even more. I’m also on another medication which interacts with lots of meds and my GP was quite careful to try and prescribe only certain ones which he thought would be ‘safest’ for me, especially having paroxysmal Afib and Sertraline was one he thought would be ‘safe’. You could check with your GP again about the interactions. If you look at the NICE guidance too, on line and check the interactions with your other meds with sertraline, you will see whether it’s a low, moderate or high interaction.

Looking back, I’m sure that if I had been stronger, I might have been able to get past that first couple of weeks and endure those side effects, but I’ll never know. They obviously do help others on here. It is totally what you feel happiest doing.

What did help me instead though was CBT and ‘talk therapy’ which I referred myself for, through the NHS ( I think the site is ‘My Therapy’) at the time they were inundated with referrals due to covid, so I had to wait 6 months for it, but it might be quicker now. I had weekly calls with a great therapist who helped me manage the anxiety so much better than I was. If it’s anxiety over the Afib, that’s causing you to want to take medication, then I do also recommend reading ‘Hope and help for your nerves’ by Dr. Claire Weekes - a brilliant book.

[Ppiman]

My cousin has taken sertraline for very many years has fibrillation, so your doctor is right. She swears by it. Many years should, I was given a similar SSRI for anxiety following some family tragedies many years ago. It actually made my anxiety and insomnia far worse over several months and I had multiple side effects. It seems there is a particular genetic aspect to some of us that makes these drugs rather toxic.

There also does seem to be some question over SSRIs in general as it’s recently been discovered that they don’t work at all in the ways that have been claimed since they were discovered and the success rate versus with placebo is not all that amazing.

Depression is such a variable but always deeply unpleasant thing to suffer and those who don’t have it can have no conception at all of it as it’s so different from a normal low mood. I would try everything first before taking an SSRI, myself, such as CBT and similar - but you probably have!

Best of luck. Life can be hard.

Steve

[ozziebob]

You could try this well-known site for drug side effects and interactions ... drugs.com