Sertraline

[L1974]

Hello I’ve just upped my sertraline from 25mg to 50mg, very dry mouth and odd feeling didn’t ever settle on the 25mg to be honest! This is week 4 when can I expect this to work?!

[marcustr33]

Hello, I have been on sertraline for a couple of years now and it's completely normal to have minor side effects such as the ones you have mentioned. It typically took around 4 to 6 weeks to see any change whenever I upped my dose. Keep in mind that all anti depressants work differently for everyone so it's about finding the right one.

I would continue to take you're doctors advice and contact them if the symptoms persist or get worst overtime. The symptoms should lift as your body gets used to them.

They have worked great for me, best of luck my friend!

[Dolphin35]

Hi - I've been on Sertraline since my life collapsed in about 2012.

To be honest I might have suffered some side effects but never noticed because of the state I was in. Or I might not have. I can't say.

In any case the overall effect has been good. I started on 50mg per day and it initially took a couple of weeks to notice the effect it was having on moderating my mood. After a month my GP assessed me and upped my dose to 100mg. Again, it took a few weeks to work out if it was helping. But it was.

It doesn't cheer me up (!) but it definitely stops me hitting the bottom of the mental barrel.

After several months, I had recovered enough to read a lot of medical and scientific papers on Sertraline (I have a BSc and enough analytic scientific knowledge and experience to understand most of it, without claiming to be a Scientist). I wanted to know what this stuff was likely to be doing to me!

Basically it messes with the chemicals in your brain. When you are severely depressed these change, and Sertraline attempts to redress the balance of a particular compound, called Seratonin, towards whatever used to be "normal".

Where antidepressants in the late 20th Century (e.g.Prozac) would dull all extremes of your brain activity - you weren't suicidal but you became something like a zombie - (I have personal experience) - this stuff aims to shift you back towards normal. (note I said "towards"!)

All the information I have found suggests that the side effects of Seratonin balancing drugs are far fewer and less significant than most alternative therapies. Given the condition we are in when they are prescribed to us, it's not surprising that we suffer a number of symptoms. It isn't unlikely that many of these are not attributable to the medication, but to stress and anxiety related issues, or to previously undiagnosed medical conditions. (Again - personal experience - a bowel complaint that coincided with my taking Sertraline. Attributed to Stress/IBS/Side effect by my GP. Five years on it became critical and I had to have my Gall Bladder removed. One month later I'm still on Sertraline but my guts are fine!)

One of the most interesting bits of information I found was a medical paper about the timing of medication. If we are told to take our Meds once a day, when in the day this is has an impact on their effect. Cholesterol inhibitors (Statins to you and me) are significantly more effective if taken at the end of the day, before sleep. Although I hadn't been advised of this by me GP, I figured that the same might be true of antidepressants. After all, if you are going to mess with the chemicals in your brain, it makes sense to hit it while you're sleeping so that it has worked out some sort of balanced response by the time you wake up and start using it - right?

For me, this worked really well. Brush your teeth and then wash down your sertraline when you rinse. Or, on a bad day, take your setraline with the last slug in your Brandy bottle. Whatever. I've been taking it for a long time and I'm still here. Without it I really don't know if I would be.

Wow I really didn't mean to go on for so long. Sorry. Just trying to help.

Goog luck. Go Well.

Dolphin35