Zoloft

[beala]

My seventeen year old is trying Zoloft for brain fog , he is starting on his 19th day and he is saying is brain fog is getting worse. We started a 12.5 for one week and he now is one 25 . He also had started back one his inderal after being off all meds for 2 months because he felt they do anything to make him FEEL better.

Wondering if we should give it a week or two to see it if it improves ??

He is pretty frustrusted ~

[MomtoGiuliana]

Hi beala

I understand what you and your son are going through. I also had terrible brain fog and a whole host of POTS symptoms when I started an SSRI. It took 6 weeks to see ANY improvement. The first two weeks I was worse! After six weeks, it seemed I slowly got better each day.

I hope this is the case for your son (that he starts to see improvement). I know I have read and heard that SSRI's may not be as effective or have different effects on teenagers than on adults.

Katherine

[POTSparent]

I've got a 17-yr old (daughter), too, and the SSRI has been considered beneficial. So maybe it just needs a little more time. Or maybe it's one of those cases where "results may vary". However, since you're starting 2 different medications at roughly the same time, how do you know which one is causing what? I've often heard that any multiple medicine treatment ought to be staggered about 2-wks so that if an unwelcome side effect develops, you have a better idea which medicine is the culprit.

[beala]

potsparent

thanks for your reply

My son had been off his inderal for awhile he wanted to see if he felt any better off it since really didn't notice a difference being on it in in the way he felt. a couple days after we started the 12.5 zoloft he asked to go back on the inderal cuz he has been feeling extremely crummy, I was hesitate but knew he had taken it before. It is very hard Dr. Low from Mayo has our primary dr. doing the ssri and she hasn't had alot of experience with it so we started low at 12.5 and the went to 25 and then 50 tomorrow. Does your daughter take a ssri ? My son wants to get rid of his brain fog sooooo badly~ Time does seem to make some things better` I really hope this zoloft works, not sure if I can talk him into taking another drug after this

Thanks again

[Deb]

Hi Beala,

I am taking Zoloft and started with the 12.5 dose. I now take 100 mgs. a day. I felt worse the first two or three weeks, then nothing, but then after about eight or ten weeks I noticed a big improvement. I almost never have brain fog anymore, my GI problems are a lot less irritating, and the anxiety I was experiencing is gone. I didn't want to take another medication, either, but I'm glad now that I stuck with it.

I hope your son starts to see improvement soon.

[beala]

Thanks Deb ! That sure is encourging ~ How long have you been taking zoloft ? How did you long before you went up to 100 mg ?

Laura

[Deb]

I think I started it March 10th. I just realized that I believe I started with the 25mg dose. It's the tiny one that comes in a one week supply starter kit with a two week supply of the 50s. I increased from 25 to 50 after a week and then two weeks to 75 and then two weeks to the goal of 100 a day. It was about five weeks from when I started taking the tiny 25 to the 100. Then it was probably two to four weeks before I really started feeling better. I was also being weaned off of Paxil at the same time. So the Paxil was declining in size of dose while the Zoloft was increasing. I had to write it out to keep it all straight!

Paxil is the only other SSRI that I've tried. It caused a horrible increase in anxiety when I went from the first tiny dose to the next size dose. That's why I was switched to Zoloft.

I hope it works as well for your son.

I don't want to step on your parental toes, but I feel that I should tell you that SSRIs can sometimes cause feelings of suicide and physical harm in people under 18 years. There was a lot of information about it in the mass media, as well as here on this forum and other medical related sites on the Internet.

[Merrill]

Deb, re: your last paragraph--I thought that phenomenon was true for kids/teens (not adults) on paxil particularly, not SSRIs generally. Am I remembering the story wrong?

(I also just want to reinforce the "everyone's different" idea--my husband's been on Paxil for over a year and it's been fantastic for him in reducing anxiety. He doesn't have dysautonomia, tho...)

[POTSparent]

Beala:

My daughter is on 100mg Zoloft. She's been on it for about 2.5 years. As I recall, we did ramp up through a series of 25mg, 50mg, 75mg, before hitting and staying at the 100mg target. For what it's worth, we've changed doctors several months ago. The new doctor wants to switch (in due course) from Zoloft to another SSRI, but it hasn't been a high priority. We had some beta blockers to come off of, and another medicine to add, that took priority. We have another appt next month, and I expect to hear further discussion about the switch away from Zoloft. All SSRI's allegedly act just a little bit differently from one another, and she wants to use one with a slightly different effect. Still, Zoloft has been generally a beneficial part of the program.

[pamyla]

I've been on zoloft for years now, but getting on it was tough for me. I think I had about 3 months of brain fog and various other symptoms. But the symptoms were tolerable so I kept with it. On the other hand, trying Paxil, I couldn't tolerate more than a few days. It's very individual, so my advice is to listen to your son. And, take it slowly. I wasn't able to stick to the increase schedule that my doctor originally wanted me to, I had to tailor it to how I was feeling. I wouldn't increase until my symptoms went away at the current dose.

Also, I think they're still learning about the connection between SSRI's and suicide. I saw firsthand the effect of Prozac on a friend of mine. It's good to be aware.