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pregnancy and anxiety medications

so i am having severe anxiety and panic attacks.... my doctor wants me to start on zoloft...any one else take it during pregnancy and what is or was your dose? when i read online about it i am pretty sure they dont recommend using it in tyour 3rd trimester though? any feedback would be helpful...

thx,
tricia
7 Responses
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489656 tn?1249999983
Hi. I also suffer with anxiety and panic disorder. I have a 3 month old son. (well almost ) My anxiety started getting horrible during about my 4th month or so. The docs put me on 50mg of zoloft which worked great. But after about 3 months, they started coming back, so they upped my dosage to 100mg. It helped and my son was born just fine! You have to take care of mama too hun! I think Zoloft will be fine . Good luck!
Helpful - 0
254689 tn?1251180040
I so appreciate your post - i think it's a wonderful story for all pregnant women who suffer from anxiety & depression.  Thank you so much for sharing your story - your midwife sounds like a wise professional.
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Avatar universal
Hi I read your post and wanted to share my story with you.  I have suffered severe anxiety and depression since my first child was born  19 years ago!!  I have a 19 year old and 14 year old daughters  from first marriage and 7 month old from second marriage .  I have been on at least 8 different meds that I can remember through these years and with my last pregnancy I was on wellbutrin when found out I was pregnant with my now 7 month old daughter.  The doctor did not recommend the welbuttrin through that pregnancy and my midwife switched me to celexa!  They did mention that the possible side effect was minor breathing difficulty when baby is born and sure enough my daughter did have difficulty for the first 8 hours of life which made me feel that I had done this to her and I felt awful.  My midwife was so wonderful and told me that I needed that medication for my own sanity during the pregnancy ( and I really did need it as I was a nervous mess due to 3 previous miscarriages and I was positive all the way along in my pregnancy that something was going to go wrong and I was going to lose this one ( I was a mess!) and baby was fine all in all. I truly believe in anti-depressants and they will probably give you the lowest dose available - just make sure to ask about fetal side effects if any.

Take Care
Dawn
Hope this helped
Helpful - 0
254689 tn?1251180040
Bless your heart - anxiety's no fun at all to deal with - especially during pregnancy!

There are several websites besides the ones mentioned above which are more 'professional' for lack of a better word in evaluating drugs:

www.drugs.com
www.rxlist.com

There are lots of others but remember this:  when evaluating patients for taking drugs such as these, doctors always consider benefits outweighing the risks.  If they feel it does, they'll prescribe it and it will be okay for your child.  As one other poster said, many women have taken Zoloft during pregnancy and their babies have been just fine.  The important thing is for you to be okay.  Follow your doctor's instructions & if you do decide to go off of it after a while, do so only w/a doctor's supervision.

I know of what I speak:  I took a med called Abilify during my last pregnancy.  It's category 'c' for pregnancy but all of my doctors agreed that benefit outweighed the risks.  My child is just fine in all respects!  Yours will be too - have confidence in your doctor and if you have any more questions, another source to talk to is your pharmacist (I know - I'm married to one).

I hope this helps - try not to worry - jen
Helpful - 0
951946 tn?1263565383
My doctor told me last year that if I were to get pregnant, I could stay on my dosage of 10mg Paxil with no problems, and that up to 50mg has been shown to have only mild side effects for the baby. She said, "At the most, the baby would just sleep a lot". She didn't seem concerned about it at all. I was lucky in that I was able to go off Paxil last November and switch to an herbal support, 5-HTP.

Now that I am pregnant, I'm trying to stay off the 5-HTP, and I AM seeing the effects in the levels of anxiety and weepiness I'm dealing with. I do reserve the right to take it again, if my symptoms were to intensify. And if I had a full blown anxiety or panic attack, I would seriously consider going back on the Paxil.

What I would advise you for sure is to start slow with the Zoloft. For example, if they want to pop you right onto 20 mg, break em in half and start with 10mg. This is of course JUST my opinion from experience, and I am NOT a medical professional. I just know from experience that 1.) It takes time for these meds to kick in and 2.) Starting right off at a dosage that is too high for you can actually *cause* a panic attack-- I ended up in an ER with my heart pounding out of my chest the first time I tried 20mg of an SSRI. Which was way worse than the original symptoms that I took the med for.

Doctors pretty much guess at what your initial dosage should be, based on your height, weight, severity of symtoms. I found that, over 9 years of taking Paxil, less was definitely more. I always took the minimum that I could get away with. There were times I even went down to 5mg, and my doctor would laugh at me saying, That's basically a placebo amount, but it was all I needed.

Best of luck!!
Helpful - 0
212720 tn?1304375415
My older sister was on zoloft with 2 of her pregnancies the entire duration due to severe depression. She had no side effects and both girls were born perfectly healthy.

Good Luck.
Helpful - 0
216278 tn?1308861082
I wish you luck in your journey. I too suffer from anxiety and panic attacks, but am fortunate that mine are quiet enough to be handled through acupuncture, massage and relaxation techniques.  Have you tried any of those treatments to see if there is any relief for you? Acupuncture, especially, was VERY helpful in getting me off my meds (prior to my pregnancy)

As I don't take meds, I can't offer any specific help, but did want to offer the above advice and to share with you websites that might help you...

http://www.marchofdimes.com/pnhec/188_15663.asp
http://www.otispregnancy.org/pdf/zoloft.pdf
http://depression.emedtv.com/zoloft/zoloft-and-pregnancy.html

I also found this information ....
"Washington, DC: Less than a year ago, in July 2006, the FDA issued a Public Health Advisory on a birth defect found to be associated with Zoloft and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants by a study in the February 2006 New England Journal of Medicine that found a higher risk of a life-threatening lung disorder in infants exposed to SSRIs, stating:

"A recently published case-control study has shown that infants born to mothers who took selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) after the 20th week of pregnancy were 6 times more likely to have persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN) than infants born to mothers who did not take antidepressants during pregnancy.""

Again, good luck and hope this helps!
Helpful - 0
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