Zoloft side effects

[cnmt]

I am a 38 yr old female.  I have suffered from severe post partum depression after each of my four children were born for which I was treated successfully with zoloft.  I took the drug for a period of one year for each episode and did very well on it.

It has been 3 yrs since I stopped taking zoloft and have been feeling very anxious recently and I feel like the depression is creaping back.  My doctor suggested I go back on the zoloft because it helped me so well in the past.  I have taken 25mg a day for the past past week and now I am experiencing a terrible salty taste in my mouth that is quite bothersome.  I didn't have this side effect in the past and am wondering if it could be the Zoloft and if so, will it eventually go away?

Thanks

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

A "salty taste" is not a side effect that is famiilar to me or reported in the literature, but 10-15% of people taking Zoloft do report a dry mouth, which does go away.  Perhaps your salty taste is secondary to a dry mouth.  If not, then zoloft is probably not the cause.

[frecklesag29]

Thanks for the reply.

[frecklesag29]

Skizo,
Hope your weekend has gone well.  I need to ask you a question about effexor xr.  I have taken it for 2 1/2 months, 75mg a day.  I really don't see any results.  Although, I haven't thrown anything lately.  I still have the weird say the slightest thing negative and send me into crying spells.  I also still have a unusual fear and have experienced the numbness in the fingers ect.  Should I still be having these symptoms?  I have thought about just tapering off the med because it is quite costly if since I have not really seen any noticeable results.
Thanks
Hey

[Skizo]

The weekend went ok, thanks.

Obviously the medication is not working. The dose of Effexor XR you are taking is still in the lower side.  

One of the advantages of Effexor is that it works  in 2 different ways in the nervous system. At the dose you are taking it is more likely to be working only like a SSRI (Prozac-Paxil-Zoloft), to get the second effect (in the norepinephrine) you would have to take a higher dose.

In resistant depressions the combination of Effexor with Wellbutrin has worked pretty well.

I don

[Skizo]

This is part of the Zoloft package insert.
-------------------------------------------------------
Treatment-Emergent Adverse Experience Incidence in
Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trials*
-----------------------------------------------------------------
                       Percent of Patients Reporting
                         Zoloft   Placebo  Difference
Adverse Experience       (N=861)  (N=853)  Percentage

Special Senses
Vision Abnormal            4.2      2.1     2.1
Tinnitus                   1.4      1.1     0.3
Taste Perversion           1.2      0.7     0.5
-----------------------------------------------------

In the table above 'salty taste' is in the "taste perversion" category.

I've heard similar complaint with the "old" antidepressants and also with Wellbutrin and Neurontin.

Try a mouth wash, this has helped some people. There are anecdotes about improvement with calcium, zinc etc. but I am not sure about this

[Skizo]

Sorry, the format of the table was distorted.
The point is that Zoloft does cause changes in the sense of taste.