SSRI drugs and chronic severe diarrhea

[Llyn]

I took high doses of SSRI's for roughly 5 years.  Chronic severe diarrhea began with the first one (Zoloft/sertraline) and has continued.  It became a little less severe when I was switched to Effexor/venlafaxine, which caused a host of other problems.  I have now been off these drugs and back on my original antidepressant, Wellbutrin, for roughly two years and nine months.  The chronic severe diarrhea has never gone away, although the fecal incontinence is not as severe as it was while I was on the Zoloft/sertraline-- then, it was during the day and at night; now it happens primarily at night.  My body is desperately and constantly trying to flush my system.  I am concerned that long term use of SSRI drugs may permanently damage SSRI receptors throughout the body.   Is anyone else out there experiencing this in conjunction with long term use of high doses of SSRI drugs?  Following long term high doses of SSRI drugs?   Thanks in advance for any information that you can provide.

[dwt7let]

Hi
Sounds like these SSRI's have effected your gut we store serotonin in our gut. These tablets give terrible withdrawals and I have had the withdrawals from effexor and it
effected my gut I had IBS symptoms from coming off effexor I had it for months even now
it effects me some days more than others.
Maybe with you switching onto different tablets even though they were in the same group it has upset your gut. These tablets are fat soluable and store in our system for a long long time especially worse the higher the dose.
I do hope you improve I feel so sorry for the ammount of time you have suffered with this.
Good Luck !!
Love
Lorraine xx

[depresseduser]

i have experienced that most all antidepressants will cause diarrhea.  The only one that i've taken that didn't have this effect was zoloft. For whatever reason my doctor has switched me off zoloft to try other ones like lexapro, prozac, and some others. but all of these have caused severe diarrhea.  Its been almost a whole year now and I still haven't really found the right antidepressant pill for me that doesn't have weird side effects.

[Twitchit68]

This is my 15th year on zoloft, for social anxiety/phobia. It has made my life much more functional. After five years I became pregnant and went off zoloft.  I resumed taking it after giving birth.  This time it worked great as before, however, now I have chronic diarreha.  This is year 8.  I was put on codeine and immodium.  I no longer take the codeine as it makes me sleepy.  I take up to 2 immodium daily, and that only allows me to have soft stools, rather then pure liquid.  

Also been on wellebutrin for a year now.  I have decided to wean myself off zoloft, and pray the D will go away.  Fear my phobia may return, but hoping the wellebrutrin will be enough.

I cant stand it anymore.  The first five years I had only occasional bouts of D and then assumed it was due to something not agreeing with me.

My doctor is wonderful, however, she too has never connected my D to ssri.  The only way I know for sure its cause is SSRI induced, is because of others like you all who are looking for the same answers.
Luci :)

[425runner]

I totally agree with you all!!  I was put on Paxil and thought I was gonna sh.* my brains out!
It was frightening and I was so weak from having constand diarrhea that I passed out several times and had to stay in bed to recover from all this.

Lexapro was fine, no diarrhea, except it made me soooo sleepy and drowsy that I couldn't function. So much for all these SSRI drugs.  

[amc69]

Glad I found you people.  I believe I'm in the same boat.  At wit's end.  Took zoloft  for about 8yrs. Experienced more frequent loose stool over the years.  Blamed it on gallbladder removal in 99. Then this Sept had a seizure in my sleep and was prescribed Tegretol (carbamazepine) so I started that along w/100 mg of zoloft I had been taking and after about 3 weeks into taking both....BAM! My gut was a mess!!  All diarrhea all the time. I now spend most of the morning in the can .  Lots of pain and pressure.Nausea too. Neuro doc. said carbam. should not do that....But I wonder if putting the 2 meds together was the trigger? I'm now tapering off zoloft and switching to Keppra (for seizures.)  Not sure if I'm feeling much relief yet!! (Been a few weeks into this)  How come I was into the docs over the years w/diarrhea complaints and none of the docs ever told me Zoloft was one of the worst SSRIs for causing d.??? Also in last couple years having problems w/insomnia...Docs never told me about that side effect either!!! Just gave me Ambien!!  I want my bowel back to normal!!  Help...Been through all the fiber and probiotic self help. Not much luck just more gas!!.. Been having to take up to 4 Immodium tabs a day!!  And poopin right through them...Getting to be afraid to leave the house or eat or drink for fear of it all running right through me..Had stool cultures and blood tests all normal so far... waiting very impatiently for my GI appt Jan. 3!!!  Which is just for a consult so I'm thinking it will take a few MORE months to actually get more in depth tests/biopsies done!!  I'm tempted to go to the emergency room to be seen sooner since this MISERY has been going on already for 3 months!! I cant live this way...I'm afraid I have some kind of colitis now that I'll be stuck with for life!!  BTW, I'll have to be on antiseizure med for at least a couple years.  Going to try to stay off SSRIs. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated  Thanks, amc69

[daorlando]

This article might be of great interest to those suffering from SSRI related diarrhea.

http://www.nleducation.co.uk/resources/reviews/a-novel-approach-to-treating-depression-how-probiotics-can-shift-mood-by-modulating-cytokines/