Zoloft Dosage § Side Effects

[Treehugger]

I am 43 and have been struggling with general anxiety and mood swings my doctor feels is caused by perimenopause.  No prior history of anxiety or mood disorder.  I tried hormone replacement and CBT but the anxiety is still bad.  So about 2.5 weeks ago I started zoloft at 25 mg.  The zoloft lifted my mood and energy level but as the first week progressed I developed worsening tremors and internal shaking.  I dropped the Zoloft to 12.5 mg to see if it would help.  The very next day the tremors and shaking stopped.  Will the zoloft be effective at all at the 12.5 mg dose or do I need to switch to another medication.  Or should I try to add more zoloft a little at a time to increase the dose.  I was told that to control anxiety the dose needs to be at 100 mg.



Note:  I tried Buspar and Klonopin - but had bad side effects.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

I don't believe that there is any set dose for Zoloft to be effective...some people are very sensitive and get what they need from a small dose...I would stay at 12.5 and then taper up but stay as low as possible.

[Treehugger]

Thanks so much.  Last night I tried going up to 18.75 mg and had tremors again this morning.  So 12.5 mg seems to be as high as I can go!