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Almost sertraline

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This page will requite yous general information most sertraline. Information technology is not medical advice.

Ever talk to your physician about your situation and whether this medication is for yous.

How sertraline works

Sertraline is a type of antidepressant called a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI).

Inquiry suggests that depression or low mood is more probable to occur when the brain doesn't take enough serotonin.

Serotonin (also called '5HT') is a naturally-occurring chemical messenger (or 'neurotransmitter') that has an of import office in areas of the brain that command mood and thinking.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) - like sertraline - are thought to work past increasing levels of serotonin in the brain. They do this by blocking the recycling of released serotonin back into the nerve endings.

Sertraline is often prescribed aslope a talking therapy.

Read our guide to anxiety

Sertraline and everyday life

Frequently asked questions

Antidepressants like sertraline can start to work on depression within the start two weeks of handling, and the comeback continues over the following few weeks.

It may take 4 weeks or longer for you lot to get the full result.

For anxiety, antidepressants like sertraline can take slightly longer to work. For some people, feet briefly increases at the outset of treatment, but the feet does subtract with connected treatment.

Your doc will commencement with a low dose, which they increase slowly to a dose that is effective for yous. This may take several days or weeks.

A side consequence of sertraline may exist weight loss or weight proceeds.

Gaining some weight is more probable, but it is very difficult to know how it will bear on each person who takes it.

Talk to your doctor about this if it worries you.

Do not take sertraline at the aforementioned time every bit weight-loss products.

You may want to allow your family and friends know you are taking sertraline so they tin support yous and help you look out for side furnishings.

For guidance on this, check out our page on getting support with your medication.

You tin feel drowsy in the first few days of taking sertraline. This should get amend later on the start week or ii. If it makes you feel drowsy, try taking it just earlier you get to bed.

Y'all could also, strangely, become insomnia (difficulty getting to slumber), and disturbing dreams or nightmares. If this happens, endeavour taking the tablet start thing in the morning.

If you feel like a zombie, and yous've been taking it for more than a month, you can go back to the doctor and see what else you could do.

Alcohol

Y'all tin continue to drink booze while taking sertraline, but having the ii together might make y'all very sleepy and unsteady on your feet.

During the first few days, it might be best to stop drinking alcohol until you lot see how the medicine affects you, or the side effects pass.

If you want to beverage alcohol, remember that you might exist very sleepy and make sure yous tin get home safely.

Drinking alcohol every solar day, or in large amounts, can make your symptoms worse and the sertraline will not get the best chance to act.

Street drugs

Methadone and heroin can make drowsiness worse with sertraline. The sertraline could increase the concentration of methadone in your trunk.

SSRIs may reduce the furnishings of ecstasy and so might make people endeavor higher doses and therefore get more than side effects.

Taking sertraline with cocaine, ecstasy or amfetamines could bring on serotonin syndrome. You lot could become a loftier temperature/fever, agitation, defoliation, trembling or weird muscle movements. Y'all demand to go to hospital if this happens. Tell the physician that you lot are taking sertraline.

Sertraline does non seem to be affected by cannabis, although it may brand yous a bit drowsier.

Cannabis and other drugs may have their own side effects on your mental wellness, like feet or psychosis. For more than information, accept a look at our drugs and alcohol page.

There are many other street drugs, but we don't know what result taking them with sertraline will take.

Sertraline does non mix well with another medicines and drugs.

Do not take sertraline if you are on or take taken MAOIs (drugs similar phenelzine, isocarboxazid, tranylcypromine or moclobemide) in the terminal 14 days; you must look until fourteen clear days have passed before yous can take sertraline.

Tell your doctor if you are taking any other medicines.

Tell the pharmacist you are taking sertraline if you buy medicines over the counter (including things y'all put on your pare) for mutual illnesses.

Do not beverage grapefruit juice while y'all are taking sertraline - the juice increases the corporeality of sertraline captivated from your gut.

Taking sertraline may make you experience sleepy, dizzy and restless, and could affect your eyesight when you commencement taking it.

This could affect you if y'all drive a car, ride a cycle, or do anything else that needs a lot of focus. It might be all-time to stop doing these things for the kickoff few days, until yous know how information technology affects y'all and your body gets used to information technology.

Exercise non worry - nearly people drive as normal while taking sertraline.

Pregnancy

When deciding whether to take sertraline during pregnancy it is of import to counterbalance up how necessary sertraline is to your wellness against the possible risks to yous or your baby, some of which will depend on how many weeks meaning yous are.

Remaining well is peculiarly important during pregnancy and while caring for a baby. For some women, handling with sertraline in pregnancy may be the best selection for both mother and baby.

If you exercise become significant while you are on sertraline, yous should conduct on taking the medicine and go dorsum to your doctor as soon every bit possible, to see if you should cease or alter your medicine.

If you and your physician agree that you will carry on taking sertraline, you lot should tell your midwife that you are taking it before you give nascency.

Mail-natal

There are some other symptoms that can occur in newborn babies if sertraline is taken in the final three months of pregnancy, so do look out for these and go help if they happen:

fits or shaking
existence as well hot or cold
feeding difficulties or being sick
having stiff or floppy muscles, or overactive reflexes
beingness jittery, irritable or having constant crying
existence very sleepy or finding it difficult to sleep

These are ordinarily mild and go away in a few days without treatment.

If sertraline is taken in the last five months of a pregnancy, it tin crusade a serious condition called persistent pulmonary hypertension of the new-built-in (PPHN). This tin can make the infant breathe faster and wait a fleck blue in colour. PPHN affects around iii in ane,000 babies born to mums who take SSRIs. This compares with a rate of two in 1,000 among babies born to mums who do non take SSRIs.

PPHN appears in the get-go 24 hours subsequently nascence. Y'all will need help from the midwife and doctors, then it is ameliorate if they are looking out for symptoms.

Breastfeeding

Sertraline passes to the infant through breast milk in minor amounts.

Breastfeeding may help offset any withdrawal symptoms.

Please talk to your midwife, doctor or pharmacist if you desire to breastfeed while taking sertraline.

Talk to your doctor or midwife about your feeding options.

If your baby was premature or has wellness problems, then you will need to exist extra conscientious about taking medicines while breastfeeding. Information technology may be all-time non to breastfeed if this is the case, but you should discuss this with your physician.

Sex

Sertraline tin can accept side effects that might affect your sex life. These might include:

a lower sex drive
problems getting an erection (getting difficult) and ejaculating (coming)
a painful erection that lasts for a long fourth dimension (priapism). If this happens to you, run across a doctor for help straight away
haemorrhage from the vagina and difficulty reaching orgasm (coming) the same way every bit before
some growth of the breasts and milk menses, regardless of gender (this is very rare)

These effects should pass after the outset couple of weeks. If they do non, and this is a trouble for you, go back to the doctor and see what else you could effort.

The proficient furnishings of sertraline may, after a while, have a positive impact on your sex life as your mood lifts and you become interested in life and relationships again.

Fertility

There accept non been any concerns almost fertility problems with sertraline.

If yous are trying to get significant, you should not take sertraline unless yous have talked nearly it with your doctor.

Sertraline is not a banned substance in sport.

Taking sertraline may affect your power to practise things like riding a bike, competitive sports or anything else that needs a lot of focus.

Yous may also discover it difficult to sit or stand still at showtime.

It might exist all-time to stop such sports for the get-go few days, until you lot know how it affects yous.

Do not worry - most people play sports as normal while taking sertraline.

Attempt not to take sertraline for the first time just earlier your exams.

Sertraline can brand you lot feel very restless in the commencement few weeks that yous take information technology and may bear on you when you sit or stand even so.

It can besides disturb your sleep, and your eyesight.

Y'all should talk to your dr. nigh whatever future exams if yous are starting sertraline. You might decide together to delay starting it until you accept washed them.

If they are more than a month away, all the same, y'all might detect that it is ameliorate to offset sertraline to ameliorate your motivation to study.

Do not worry - most people take exams equally normal while taking sertraline.

Your physician should know

You lot demand to talk to your doctor or pharmacist before starting treatment with sertraline if y'all have (or have had) any of the post-obit:
- seizures (fits)
- bipolar disorder
- schizophrenia
- thoughts of harming yourself or taking your own life
- serotonin syndrome (your dr. might have this on your records)
- low sodium level in your blood
- liver disease
- diabetes
- bleeding disorders
- if you are having electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
- eye problems, such every bit glaucoma (increased pressure in the centre)

Uses, warnings, safety and side effects of sertraline

Taking sertraline

How long will I need to take sertraline for?

You will need to accept sertraline for several months after you feel better, otherwise your symptoms tin can come dorsum.

Your doctor will advise y'all how long to accept sertraline for, as information technology depends on why y'all are taking it. For depression it might be six months, for OCD information technology might be 12 months and for other anxiety related conditions such as PTSD and panic disorder information technology might be up to eighteen months.

If you stop taking the sertraline too soon, there is more than adventure that your symptoms volition come dorsum.

If you take bipolar disorder, it is likely that the doctor will propose for the sertraline to be stopped sooner. This is considering, in bipolar disorder, there is a chance of your mood becoming too high if an antidepressant is used for too long.

See your doctor if you want to end sertraline.

You should only take sertraline equally agreed with your doctor

You volition get the best furnishings from your medicine if you lot take it every day at the dose prescribed past your doc.

Make sure that yous know your dose. If information technology is non written on the label, check with your chemist or medico.

You will usually take it once a day. When you lot start treatment, it is recommended that y'all take it in the morning and not at nighttime, in case it affects your sleep.

To assistance yous to have you tablet regularly yous should choose a fourth dimension that you will retrieve. This could be a mealtime or when you lot brush your teeth.

You will commencement with a low dose, which volition be increased slowly to a dose that is effective for you. This may take several days or weeks.

You tin take it with or without food.

Swallow the tablet whole with a drinking glass of h2o - it tastes bitter if yous chew it.

Do not drink grapefruit juice while you lot are taking sertraline - the juice increases the amount of sertraline absorbed from your gut.

What should I do if I miss a dose of sertraline?

If you remember afterwards during the mean solar day, take it as soon equally possible.

If you forget to take it by bedtime, just start again on the side by side mean solar day. Do not have a double dose.

What will happen if I forget to take my sertraline?

If y'all forget to have your tablets for a few days, you lot may start getting your quondam symptoms dorsum, or get withdrawal symptoms (feeling silly or shaky, sleep problems [including difficulty sleeping and intense dreams], feeling irritable or broken-hearted, feeling or being ill, and headaches). If this happens you should talk to your doctor almost it.

It is important to accept sertraline every day, otherwise it will non work.

Stopping the use of sertraline

Stopping this medicine speedily, or reducing the dose as well much at one time, may cause uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms.

One time yous showtime taking an SSRI, the brain adjusts to having a new level of serotonin around. If you end taking the SSRI all at in one case, the balance starts to alter once again. Y'all could become some symptoms from the change.

Sertraline is not addictive, merely you may get uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms if you stop sertraline suddenly, equally your body begins to miss information technology. Information technology is better to agree stopping with a doctor who volition reduce you lot gradually over virtually four weeks.

Some of the withdrawal symptoms include:

dizziness or headaches
tingling feelings like pins and needles or numbness - some people describe electrical shock-like feelings down their head and back
sleep disturbances (vivid dreams, nightmares, not existence able to sleep)
feeling anxious or agitated
feeling ill or beingness ill
shaking

These symptoms should terminate after 2 to three weeks for well-nigh people, just a very few people tin become them for two to three months or more.

Most people go balmy symptoms, merely for a very few people they can be very intense.

Go and speak to your dr. if you take decided to stop taking your medication.

Warnings and safety

Safety headlines

If you have taken more than sertraline than the dosage recommended by the doc who prescribed it to yous, you lot must get medical help immediately –even if you do not experience any different.

While taking sertraline, some people may think almost hurting themselves or taking their own lives. You must become straight to hospital with your tablets if yous have whatever of these thoughts.

Sertraline tin also cause rare but serious side effects: allergic reactions (difficulty animate, swelling of your face or throat, itching skin lumps), a seizure (fit), serotonin syndrome (see 'Side Effects' tab for description), and liver issues (which may present equally yellowing of skin and optics). Get to a infirmary with your medicine if you go whatsoever of these symptoms.

Do not take sertraline if you lot accept taken a monoamine oxidase inhibitor antidepressant (MAOI) like moclobemide, phenelzine, isocarboxazid or tranylcypromine in the last 14 days.

Stopping sertraline suddenly tin crusade unpleasant withdrawal effects. Get to your doctor if y'all want to stop, or if you are having these effects.

Sertraline is not addictive, simply stopping it suddenly tin can cause problems such every bit: feeling lightheaded or shaky, sleep issues (including difficulty sleeping and intense dreams), feeling irritable or anxious, feeling or existence sick, and headaches.

Go to your doctor if you want to stop, or if you are having these furnishings.

You might feel sleepy or restless, and may non be able to run across as clearly, in the first few days later taking sertraline. Do non drive a car, ride a bike or operate machines until you see how this affects you.

If you are pregnant, or thinking of becoming significant, please read the pregnancy section (encounter 'Side Effects' tab) because sertraline may affect the developing baby.

When to become to the hospital

If you take taken more sertraline than the dosage recommended by the medico who prescribed it to you, you must become medical aid immediately –even if you do not feel any dissimilar. Go to A&E. Accept your medicine with you to show to the doctors. Tell them how much you have taken. Get a friend to become with you, if you can, simply in instance yous feel sick on the way.

You might get some of the post-obit signs:

drowsiness
feeling or existence sick
fast heartbeat
shaking
agitation
dizziness
in very rare cases, going unconscious

You are also at hazard of getting serotonin syndrome. Symptoms include a high fever, agitation, confusion, trembling, or weird movements of your muscles. This is rare, but you should lookout man out for information technology.

If you have any thoughts of taking your own life or of other ways of hurting yourself, go straight to a hospital with your medicine. This may exist a side effect of taking sertraline, and you need urgent assistance. This tin happen to anyone but is more probable to happen if you are under 25 years old.

Go to a doctor or hospital straight away if you get whatever of the post-obit symptoms:

any combination of the post-obit symptoms: high fever, agitation, confusion, trembling, sweating, diarrhoea (loose poo), fast heartbeat or weird movements of your muscles – this could be serotonin syndrome
allergic reaction or allergy, which may include symptoms such equally an itchy peel rash, breathing bug, wheezing, bloated eyelids, face or lips
jaundice (yellowing of your peel or the whites of your eyes) which may mean liver damage
if you experience restless and are not able to sit or stand nonetheless after y'all kickoff to take sertraline
if you have a seizure (fit)
if you feel overexcited or very happy, as this may be a manic episode
a painful erection that lasts for a long time (priapism)

Side effects of sertraline

Side furnishings of sertraline

Some sertraline side effects that appear should go away or get better after a few days. If they do not, yous should become dorsum to your physician.

Don't stop taking sertraline until you talk to your doctor or you may become withdrawal symptoms as well.

Very common side effects of sertraline, affecting more than 1 in ten people, include:

dizziness or headache
sleepiness, feeling very tired, or difficulty getting to slumber
diarrhoea (loose poo)
feeling sick
dry mouth
problems with ejaculating (coming)

Mutual sertraline side effects, affecting upwards to one in ten people, include:

sore throat, teeth grinding, or a funny taste in your mouth
changes in your appetite (feeling hungrier or less hungry)
having nightmares
feeling anxious, agitated, depressed, nervous, or just strange
less involvement in sex, or problems having sexual practice - like difficulty getting an erection
numbness and tingling, tense muscles, having muscle pain, or shaking
issues with focusing and concentration
effects on your eyesight
ringing in your ears
palpitations, chest pain, hot flushes and sweating
yawning a lot
beingness sick or having stomach and gut pain
having constipation, an upset breadbasket, lots of wind
getting a rash

In clinical trials, young people aged under 25 were more likely than adults to get the following side effects from SSRI medicines:

thoughts of self-damage and/or taking their own lives
existence hostile or aggressive

The nearly common side effects of sertraline reported in children and adolescents are headache, insomnia, diarrhoea and nausea (feeling sick).

Virtually this data

The information on this page was reviewed by the College of Mental Wellness Pharmacy in March 2020.

Visit the CMHP website

CMHP. College of Mental Health Pharmacy

More than information and advice

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Source: https://www.youngminds.org.uk/young-person/medications/sertraline/