Zoloft & Stroke Symptoms

[Shay717]

My husband is 30-years olf and in the hospital right now.  He had been on 50 mg of Zoloft for about a month.  Then his dosage was increased to 100 mg and about 2-days later he was having severe chest pain and weakness in his legs.  He went to an urgent care, where they said that he had a very rapid pulse and gave him something to slow it down.  The said that the Zoloft was causing this and to discontinue using it.

The next day he started feeling a weird sensation on the right side of his face and right arm.  He said there was numbness and tingling.  He went to urgent care again, where they said it could have been a mini-stroke, but to go to the er, if it gets worse.

The next day, he woke up feeling the same sensation, only now in his leg as well.  He went to the er where it got worse to where it was very painful and his chest was in pain.  He ended up having to be admitted to the hospital where he seems to be getting worse. They have put him back on the Zoloft, but the pain and tingling is moving to the left side of his body and he can barely walk now.

I was wondering if Zoloft has ever been known to cause something like this to happen whether in withdrawels or side-effects?  

[ggreg]

What I tell you is from my own experience, plez understand I am not a doc.  I take Zoloft for 10 years, 100mg daily, and in my opinion, him being on 50mg of Zoloft for a month should not bring on withdrawals, altho if you're on a higher dose for a year or more, the withdrawals feel like bad anxiety and last a couple weeks.  Now, him briefly upping the dose to 100mg, while I cannot imagine that would bring on his chest pain, you need to get the prescribing doc in there forthwith and have him take a look at your husband and declare what he thinks about the Zoloft.  And as for putting him back on the Zoloft, in my opinion, that's NOT a good plan, he'd be better off on a tranquilizer, but I am not qualified to argue the point at all.

Now, there are OTHER psych medications that withdrawing from can, for example, bring on a seizure.  I hope the hospital scanned his head to see if he did indeed have a stroke, and if they have not, by golly they need to!  Also, I am wondering if he was in some kind of accident before this happened to him, like even while working on the car, he may have wrenched his back.  Sometimes if you hurt the thoracic spine, it'll make the chest hurt, and if he hurt his whole spine, it'll cause the tingling in his extremities and face.  But it does sound like a heart condition, despite what I'm saying about spinal injury, and it also sounds like he may have indeed had a stroke.  But as to its cause, I really do not know.  If you want, you can go to websites like drugs.com and they'll list side effects.  But the prescribing doc needs to show up at the hospital today.

I sure hope your husband gets past this, he needs a scan today and a cardiologist specialist on board today.  They have got to decide what happened, be it a regular minor heart attack, or a bleed in the brain, or an allergic type reaction to too much Zoloft, or some kind of seizure perhaps from another medication he's taking.  Gosh, I know you are just worried sick, and I'll be thinking of you, dear one.  GG