Zoloft or sertraline hydrochloride is a medicament that mostly used to decrease such conditions like social disorder of anxiety, dejection, panic and other. This drug belongs to the type that has a name selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs. Zoloft balances levels of serotonin in your brain. This action helps to calm down depression and other conditions. Usual side effects after taking Zoloft are queasiness, xerostomia and sleep disorder.
They made lots of clinical researches on how Zoloft reacts to some conditions. And they discovered that it can effectively treat OCD, disorder of social anxiety in adults, depression, panic disorder and stress after injury. These illnesses did not repeat to those, who took this medicine that was proven by long lasting studies.
Little children that are more than six are allowed to take Zoloft to treat OCD. Unfortunately no tests were made on what else can be cured in teens and kids.
Zoloft was tested for PMDD or premenstrual dysphoric disorder during two clinical studies, which did not include those women that take oral birth control pills. During one of the studies, they asked women to take pills only during two weeks in the end of menstrual cycle. And during the other study, women took pills every day of their periods. The two studies proved that Zoloft treats PMDD.
Pfizer is the company for manufacturing Zoloft. There are other produces that manufacture generic version of this drug. There are three doses of Zoloft. It goes in 25 mg, 50 mg and 100 mg. There is one strength for the liquid form of this drug. Its concentration is 20mg per one mL.
Sertraline hydrochloride or as they call it Zoloft, is a drug that is not sold over the counter and people use it when they have the following conditions:
When a person has panic disorder
Social phobia or disorder of social anxiety
Depressive syndrome
When a person has PTSD which stands for post-traumatic stress disorder
Or when they have OCD which means obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
PMDD or Premenstrual dysphoric disorder
Panic disorder
Panic disorder
Patients that have this syndrome, have a feeling of great danger that could happen to them. This condition appears unexpectedly and with some frequency. You can not explain for what reason does it happen. It makes you to breath more rapidly, you sweat, hearts beats faster and the person is shaking. These are the symptoms of heart attack and the person can be sent to a hospital by mistake. Such panic attacks can happen to patients even when they don't have any reason to worry.
Zoloft could be prescribed to adult patients that have panic disorder. It is a kind of fear and such antidepressants as Zoloft are used to treat these disorders.
Social anxiety disorder
Social anxiety
Sometimes people name this condition as social phobia. It happens when a person has an irresistible fear or redundant self-awareness in social situations that happen every day. Patients that have a social anxiety disorder are afraid intensively and persistently that someone is watching them. They have chronic attacks that people judge them a lot and they are usually afraid that they will feel embarrassed or they will do something that will make them humiliated. This kind of phobia can be very strong and it can hinder:
Different activities you do every day
School or work
Relationships that you have with people
It is hard to overcome when these patients realize that they feel uncomfortable around a lot of people. This feeling is so imprudent and needless. It can last for some couple of days or weeks. They worry a lot about such horrible situations.
Patients with such conditions are usually treated by medications and cognitive therapy of their behavior, which can last for a short time. Social anxiety disorder is approved to be treated by Zoloft.
Depressive syndrome
Depressive syndrome
Depressive syndrome is a condition that is more than just being down or sad. It may be accompanied by the following symptoms:
Pain in some parts of body
Loss of appetite or constant hunger that is followed by gaining or loosing weight
Sensing that you don't worth anything and there is no hope
A person looses interest in what he used to admire
During huge clinical studies it was approved that Zoloft can treat the depression in adults. Still, it is worth remembering that you need to take such antidepressants like Zoloft for some weeks to see them working. It happens sometimes, when people from your surrounding notice before you that you have some improvements of your condition. Usually, such physical symptoms like pain or insomnia are improved first; it may happen during first weeks of your treatment. You will need to take the medicine during 4 or 6 weeks, when you will see some changes in your mood. You have to try Zoloft before you come totally depressed and dispirited.
The depression is treated together with therapy, psychological counseling and taking antidepressant drugs. Your doctor can give you advice if you need to have some psychological therapy, when you are taking medication.
PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
PTSD
This kind of condition can happen to people that had experienced a horrible event that happened in their life. Usually, PTSD patients have memories and thoughts that they can't forget and it scares them. These memories are about some situation that they experienced and it was a trial to them. They behave numb emotionally and it reflects the people that were close to them. 5.2 million Americans have experienced the effects of Post traumatic stress disorder. This syndrome more likely happens to women than to men. It is possible that post-traumatic stress disorder can happen to people of any age. It can also happen to little babies and children. It is has been noticed that PTSD may occur to all the members of the family and be genetic.
When people treat their Post traumatic stress disorder, they often go with therapy. The types of therapy can vary. You can discover more in PTSD Treatment chapter. This syndrome can also be treated with medication. One of the drugs that was approved to cure PTSD is Zoloft.
OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
OCD
Patient with this kind of disorder usually have repeating and unwished obsessions and compulsions that they understand it is impossible to control them. They have obtrusive thoughts and they want to make them go away by preventing with such actions or rituals like counting, cleaning, controlling something, washing hands too often. After they perform this kind of actions, the thoughts go away only for some time, returning more increased and seldom. Nowadays, the scientists can not give information of why these thoughts appear and people have obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Adults can take Zoloft as a treatment for OCD. Different symptoms of OCD can be treated by Zoloft or antidepressants of its kind. A special therapy of behavior can be used together with antidepressants. Your doctor may give you more information on the behavior therapy in your case.
PMDD or Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder
PMDD
You shouldn't misunderstand PMDD with PMS. It is more than that. Women that have Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder have strong symptoms that last during one week or more each month before starting of their periods. The following symptoms can harm their life, including relationships and other everyday actions.
No one can explain why PMDD happens to women. There are estimations that it happens because of serotonin. It was proved that Zoloft can treat PMDD. It doesn't make any difference if a person takes it during her periods every day, or she takes it two weeks before she has them.
Off Label application of Zoloft
Sometimes doctors advise their patients to take Zoloft for other conditions that are not listed above. This type of treatment they name "off-label" use. Nowadays Zoloft can be applied to treat the following conditions:
Disorders with nourishing, like bulimia and anorexia
In the following there are facts that you could need about Zoloft dosages:
This medicine is taken usually one time a day orally. It is sold as a liquid and pills.
A liquid form of medicine is its concentrate, so each time prior to use, you should dilute it. The necessary amount of medicine should be measured and mixed with a half coup or 4 ounces of lemonade, orange juice, water or ginger ale. It is forbidden to mix this concentrate with other liquids. You also should not prepare the mixed concentrate some time before the intake. It is better to take the medicine as soon as you prepared it.
To keep the same level of medicine in your body, you should adjust taking each day at the same hour.
When you feel a discomfort in your stomach after you took Zoloft, next time you should eat something before taking it, or just take it together with food.
The symptoms of withdrawal can happen if you are taking this medicine.
As any other medicine, it should be taken how your doctor prescribed it. You will not experience the effect from the medicine if you take it in other way as it was prescribed.
You can adjust taking the medicine before you go to bed, if it makes you sleepy. Or you could take it in the morning if the medicine makes you suffer form insomnia.
When you think that the dose you are taking is wrong, you should consult your pharmacist or your doctor. In any case, you shouldn't quit taking this medication before you talked to one of them.
Dosing for people with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder
A dose of 50mg per day is the first dose that a patient that has premenstrual dysphoric disorder should start. Also, the medication could be taken during the beginning of period in women or during the whole women's menstrual cycle. It depends on what instructions the doctor will say to you. If you feel that the medicine doesn't work, your doctor could advise to increase the dosage. It also can be decreased if you feel side effects.
Dosage for kids
Children of age from 13 to 17 are usually prescribed a 50mg dose of medicine and kids from 6 to 12 are taking a dose of 25mg per day. A pediatrician could advise to increase the dosage. It also can be decreased if you see that a kid has side effects.
Dosing for those that have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder or Depression
The doctors usually recommend taking a 50mg dose of medicine one time a day to those that have OCD or depression. If you feel that the medicine doesn't work, your doctor could advise to increase the dosage. It also can be decreased if you feel side effects.
Dose for patients with Social Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
A usual dose of this drug for patients with such conditions as PTSD, Panic Disorder or social anxiety disorder should be 25mg per day. When one week passes, the doctor could raise it to 50mg per day. If the doctor sees that you have side effects, he could decrease the dosage. When he sees that there is no improvement in your health, he could increase the dose.
When you decided to start taking Zoloft, you should warn your doctor that you have the following conditions:
You have diabetes
You were thinking about committing suicide or there were such attempts
If anyone in your family had manic depression or you have it (this disease is also called bipolar disorder)
St. Avertin's disease or sacred disease
You have allergies (to latex, preservatives, food or dyes)
You have problems with heart or you had a heart attack some time ago
Disease of liver. For example cirrhosis or liver failure
You are feeding with breast
You want to get pregnant or you are already
When you take other medication, you should tell it to your healthcare provider. It could be herbal supplements, non-prescription or prescription drugs or any vitamins.
Several precautions and warnings when you are taking Zoloft
Such antidepressants can make adults, children or teenagers to think more about committing suicide and make their behavior more intended to it. So if you remarked that the process of disease is changing or you noticed that there are some new symptoms, you should urgently visit your doctor. A patient could be too excited, active and antagonistic, have panic, be anxious, restless, have periodical hallucinations or suicidal thoughts could come across his mind.
This medicine is forbidden to people with bipolar disorder. So the doctor should first check if you have this disease and then, prescribe it. The thing is that these two diseases are alike and people who take this medicine could have dangerous side effects.
This type of drug can be a reason of lots of symptoms that can cause danger and doctors call them serotonin syndrome. When a person takes this drug with another medicine that influences serotonin, it may raise the syndrome of serotonin. It may be other antidepressants or drugs against migraine called triptans and some other medicine. When you noticed that you have serotonin syndrome symptoms, that include listed below, you should urgently contact your doctor:
Zoloft warnings
High temperature
Spasms in muscles
Sweat too much
Your heartbeat is accelerated
Hallucinations when you think you heard something or saw something which is really not there
The liquid version of this medicine comes with a dropper. Some problems may happen to people that have allergies to latex because it has a dry plant rubber. Twitch may happen to those that take this medicine. It can happen only to those that once already had it or those that have its disorder. Your doctor should be aware about your problems with seizure.
When you decided to quit the medication, the doctor should monitor the symptoms of withdrawal. They may be retardation, pain in head, loss of orientation, sensitivity, or loss of sleep. The rate should be slowed down by your doctor when you stop using the drug.
A patient could lose his weight when he is taking this medication. Patient's stomach and intestines may bleed after taking Zoloft. The possibility may raise in those patients that are using NSAIDs or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen or when they are taking aspirin. Below we give the symptoms of bleeding in your stomach:
Consult to doctor
Dark grounds of vomiting
Resiny or black stool
The stool is coated with blood of bright red color
The stool is mixed with dark blood
Vomiting with blood of bright red color
Your doctor should know if you had one of the listed above symptoms.
When a patient has problems with emiction, treatment with this drug could decrease the level of salt in your blood and cause hyponatremia. Don't worry; the level will be renovated when you stop taking the medicine.
The drug interacts well with other medicines.
You will be less able to implement difficult work that requires thinking and activeness. In this way, you need to get used to medicine's effects before you start performing this work. This may include maintaining machinery or driving.
The drug belongs to the medication Category C and you can not take it when you are pregnant. Your doctor could tell you more about positive and negative sides of using it.
The doctor might tell you that the drug can get into your breast milk. So, when you feed a baby or you are planning on doing it, you should be aware of that.
When a patient is more than 65, the doctor could adjust the lower dose.
It is forbidden to take this medicine when
A patient has allergies to this medication and to the active component, sertraline hydrochloride or to any other inactive component that is taken to manufacture Zoloft. The list of them can be given to you by your doctor.
A patient took MAOI or monoamine oxidase inhibitor during the last 14 days. The same with MAOI, it is forbidden to take it if you too Zoloft during the same period. MAOI consists of the following:
Parnate ot Tranylcypromine
Rasagiline or Azilect Isocarboxazid (Marplan)
Marplan or Azilect
Nardil or Phenelzine Phenelzine (Nardil)
Emsam, Selegiline, Zelapar or Elderpryl
If you are using Orap or pimozide. This medicine is widely used against hallucinations and syndrome of Tourette.
Are on Antabuse or disulfiram. This medication is forbidden only in those cases, when a person is taking liquid for of medicine that has alcohol in it.
The following conditions could occur to you when you take this medicine, like dryness in mouth, you sweat a lot, giddiness, dormancy, sickness, indigestion, troubles when you are sleeping, you loose your appetite. When you see that you have troubles having these effects, you should tell to your doctor.
You should keep in your mind that the healthcare provider had given you a prescription to this drug because he thought that it will bring you more benefits than risks to have side effects. Dangerous side effects didn't happen to a lot of people that were treated with this medicine.
Still your healthcare provider should know if you happen to have the following side effects: low interest to have sex, you lose your weight, delay of ejaculation, tremor or shivering, cramps of muscles or a state of being week, it is easy to make a bruise or a wound.
When you vomit with the substance that looks like grounds of coffee or toy have a bloody or black stool, you should immediately get a medical help.
Serotonin syndrome may be caused by this medication sometimes. The possibility of having this condition can be increased if you use specific type of drugs. You should immediately visit a doctor when you see that you have the following conditions: sudden anxiety, your heart beats very fast, you loose your coordination, have some hallucinations, rush, dizziness, your muscles twitch, you want to vomit all the time, have nausea and diarrhea.
Sometimes, if male takes this medication, he has pain having an erection and it lasts for more than 4 hours. Once you noticed this side effect, you should immediately quit using this medication and visit a doctor or it could last for an endless period of time.
There are not so many cases when people had a serious allergy to this drug. You still need to call a doctor if you your tongue, face or throat swells, itches or has a rash, when you have giddiness or it is hard to breath for you.
Above we didn't list all the side effects that could happen to you. You need to call a doctor, when you see that your condition changes.
The medicine works when it is admitted to be linked to neurons of CNS that are accumulating serotonin or 5HT. During clinical studies it was shown that certain doses of this medicine had stopped the accumulation of serotonin in platelets of human. Some studies in animals had showed that this medicine can be a selective inhibitor for recapture of serotonin. It doesn't affect a lot on the neuronal reuptake of dopamine and norepinephrine. Studies that were made in laboratory conditions proved that the drug doesn't have a connection with cholinergic, dopaminergic, benzodiazepine, serotonergic (5HT1B, 5HT1A, 5HT2), GABA, adrenergic (beta, alpha1 and alpha2) or histaminergic receptors. It was hypothecated that antipathy of this kind of receptors can be connected with different cardiovascular, anticholinergic and sedative effects of psychotropic medication. Continuous application of this medicine can lead to low regulation of brain receptors of norepinephrine in animals. This kind of effect was also noticed in those that took medicine for depressive disorder. Monoamine oxidase can not be inhibited by this drug.
In 1970 Pfizer's chemists had started to work on developing a line of new psychoactive compounds, where this medicine was the most outstanding. Later they discontinued its development when they found out that it is very stimulative.
Seven years had passed when another two scientists, Willard Welch and Kenneth Koe had tried out and produced some derivations from this medicine that were never explored. Later, Willard Welch had worked up with stereoisomer which is the most encouraging solution. Albert Weissman had made tests on animals with it. They selected the best (+)-cis-isomer for preparation and research and than sertraline appeared.
It was a chance to develop the molecule of sertraline. There were some problems with the bureaucracy of Pfizer during the development of this medicine. This company had used the license and development of antidepressant from other company.
Pfizer is a first company that started to manufacture this drug. It doesn't have a patent already but you can find a generic version of it. You can find the following doses of generic liquid and pills of this drug:
Generic Zoloft
25 mg pills of Sertraline
50 mg pills of Sertraline
100 mg pills of Sertraline
An oral concentrate of 20mg per 1mL of Sertraline
A generic version of this medicine is produced by the following companies:
Mylan Laboratories
Sandoz Pharmaceuticals
Teva Pharmaceuticals
The pharmacist could let you know what other manufacturers make the generic version of this medicine.
Does the quality of generic sertraline differ from Zoloft?
Usually all generic versions are going through special tests to assimilate them to the drugs with the brand-name. Later, these tests are going to the American FDA, where they make a decision on the equivalence of the generic version to brand-name and give a rating to each generic. If a generic has "AB", it means that this drug is an analogue of a medication with brand-name. The generic versions of sertraline that are available on the market are all holding "AB" rating. This means that they are a simple analogue of Zoloft.
It is still admitted that a generic version could have various inactive ingredients that a medication with brand-name doesn't have. They can be color, fillers or something else that can bring allergies to people that are too sensitive.
Alcohol
In the prescription it is not recommended to drink alcohol when you are taking this medicine. So the combination could bring you some side effects that you will not expect.
Aspirin
Aspirin
Your stomach may bleed if you take the medicine together with aspirin. You should consult your doctor when you start using these two medicines together.
Certain arrhythmia medications
When you take this drug with specific arrhythmia medications, it could cause the augmentation of its level in your blood and therefore you will have more side effects. Ask your doctor to be more attentive to you and maintain the dose that he will give you.
Tagamet
Cimetidine or Tagamet
Combination of this drug and cimetidine or tagamet will bring the augmentation of the medicine in the content of your blood, supposedly bringing more risk to have side effects. The doctor could propose you to decrease the dose of the drug or could offer you another drug similar to cimetidine.
Digoxin or Digitek or Lanoxin
When you take the drug together with digoxin it could cause more risks to have side effects from both drugs. The doctor could maintain what dose you will need to take so that there will not be problems from the interaction.
Antabuse
Disulfiram or Antabuse
It is not advised to take a liquid version of this medicine together with disulfiram. The thing is that the liquid version has 12% of alcohol and if you take it with disulfiram will bring you dangerous side effects.
Linezolid or Zyvox
Taking the drug and linezolid will be a reason of several symptoms that they call serotonin syndrome. The symptoms may be the following:
Your heart beats faster
You sweat
Zyvox
Have hallucinations
High temperature
Clouded state
Faintness
Diarrhea
It is hard to walk
Spasm of muscles
Prior to take these two medicines together, you should talk to your doctor. When you started having the listed above symptoms, you should call immediately to your doctor, because it is very dangerous to have serotonin syndrome.
Lithobid
Lithium (Eskalith, Lithobid)
When you combine lithium and this medication it will bring a lot of side effects which is serotonin syndrome. It is better to speak to your doctor before starting the medication. When you see that you started having the listed in the previous paragraph symptoms, you should call immediately to your doctor, because it is very dangerous to have serotonin syndrome.
Miscellaneous antidepressants
The risk of having serotonin syndrome can also be increased when you combine the medication with other antidepressants. Ask your doctor if you can take together these two medicines. Inform your doctor as soon as you have serotonin syndrome symptoms because it could bring harm to you.
Monoamine oxidase inhibitors or MAOIs
It is dangerous to life if you take MAOI together with this medication. It is forbidden to take these both at one time, wait for two weeks before you take another you took one.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs
When you combine NSAIDs and this medication, it could make your stomach to bleed. Ask your doctor if you are allowed to take them together.
Orap
Pimozide or Orap
You may get a QT prolongation which is a strong irregular rhythm of the heart if you take this medication together with pimozide.
SSRI or SNRI antidepressants
If you take the drug with antidepressants of SNRI or SSRI, you may also have several symptoms that have serotonin syndrome. You should ask your doctor if you can take these two medicines against depression. Inform your doctor as soon as you have serotonin syndrome symptoms because it could bring harm to you.
St. John's Wort
Combination of these two medicines can also be a reason of serotonin syndrome. You should ask your doctor if you can take these two medicines at one time Inform your doctor as soon as you have serotonin syndrome symptoms because it could bring harm to you.
Tolbutamide
When a patient is taking this medication with tolbutamide, he might increase its level in his blood. Low blood sugar may occur as one of the side effects. The doctor could ask you to take less tolbutamide so there will not be problems with interaction.
Tramadol and Acetaminophen or Ultracet, or Tramadol which includes Ryzolt, Eltram ER, Ultram and Rybix ODT
Combination of this medicine with suvch drug like tramadol, can bring serotonin syndrome symptoms. You should ask your doctor if you can take these two medicines at one time Inform him as soon as you have serotonin syndrome symptoms because it could bring harm to you.
Tricyclic antidepressants
The level of tricyclic antidepressants in your blodd could increase if you take these two medicines together. Taking Zoloft with tricyclic antidepressants can increase the level of tricyclic antidepressants in your blood. The doctor could ask you to take less tricyclic drugs so there will not be problems with interaction.
Triptans
Combination of triptan and this medication can be a reason of serotonin syndrome symptoms. Taking Zoloft with a triptan can cause a group of symptoms called serotonin syndrome. You should ask your doctor if you can take these two medicines at one time and inform him as soon as you have serotonin syndrome symptoms because it could bring harm to you.
Tryptophan
If you take this drug with tryptophan, it can be a reason of symptoms from serotonin syndrome. You should talk to your doctor if you can take these two medicines at one time and inform him as soon as you have serotonin syndrome symptoms because it could bring harm to you.
Warfarin
There may be cases of bleeding if you take warfarin and this drug at one time. The doctor should be more attentive to you when you quit or begin taking this medication.
Conclusion
We may have listed not all the interactions that could happen with this drug. In any case you still need to speak with your doctor on your special condition and what interactions you could have.
I started to adore Sertraline, the moment I began to take it. I had so many irritation and dullness in my life before it. It is easier for me to live now and to my family. I don’t feel the sickness anymore. There were some side effects that appeared fluently like enmity to sex and anxiety. There were no other side effects. It would be better if one of them was loosing weight!
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Donovan
16 July 2012
Today is the day when I began to use this medicine. I already have hypothyroidism and hypertension and they both give me the gain of weight, so I have a hope that when I take this medicine, it will bring benefits. I do sports a lot and at the moment my weight is 168 lbs.
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Darren
18 October 2012
This drug is the best! After taking it during three months, I had grown this in thirty pounds. I hope I will never gain them!!! The target for me is again 30 or 40 off. Of course I have side effects, but you need to know how to overcome them!
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Payton
08 January 2013
I see the results after taking this medicine for a week. I don’t have 8lbs any more. It is interesting for me what will I get after I take the medicine for a couple of months. The only thing I do is a morning exercise two times a week. I am really thankful to this medicine!
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Kristopher
02 April 2013
It is already one year since I started to use this medicine. I can't imagine what the reason of my bad thoughts is. They are very real and bring me too much anxiety. After a year now, I have improvements. Nothing makes me too angry. The medicine helped me to become a better father and husband. There were no bad effects that I experienced.