Setraline and diarrhea + switching to Venlafaxine

[ilyena]

Hello everyone. I'm currently having some problems with my treatment and I was hoping someone could help me out or just share experiences. Long post ahead, sorry for that :(

I was diagnosed with depression a little over 2 months ago. The depression was triggered by a stressful situation at college, which also caused me a lot of stress and anxiety. At first I was put on Fluoxetine, Clonazepam (0,25 during the day if I ever felt very anxious) and Zolpidem at night, since I was having trouble sleeping. I also decided to postpone college for one semester in order to get some rest.

After 10 days on Fluoxetine, when the initial dose was increased, I experienced some really bad side effects, like extreme agitation and complete lack of appetite. Because of depression I was already underweight, so my psychiatrist decided to switch me to Sertraline instead, to keep me from losing more weight. The first week I still had some nasty adverse effects like insomnia, sweaty hands and feet, lack of appetite and insomnia. I also stopped taking Clonazepam during the day, but instead I stared taking 0,5 mg and 5 mg of Zolpidem at night, which has helped my sleeping patterns.  

After the first week or so, the adverse effects slowly disappeared and my mood improved a lot. I was honestly loving Sertraline, because it made me feel the way I was before the depressive episode and it also improved my anxiety. About two weeks ago, I started getting diarrhea. At first it didn't bother me, because I spend most of my time at home and I just though it would eventually go away like the other adverse effects. Plus, compared to feeling miserable and crying everyday, it was something I could tolerate. However, it hasn't really stopped and my psychiatrist told me it might not go away, and that she wanted to change me to Venlafaxine. Honestly, my first reaction was OH NO, NOT AGAIN. Not another new medication. She told me diarrhea is keeping me from gaining weight and might damage my colon if it goes on. Now, I didn't think it was such a big deal and I was considering to just keep taking Sertraline until the diarrhea was gone, but this week I started having stomach pain. I've also felt dizzy and woke up with vertigo the other day. I feel week and I guess it's because my body really isn't absorbing the nutrients I need anymore.

This being said... should I switch to Venlafaxine or give Sertraline one last try this upcoming week and see if the symptoms get better? I'm just feel really frustrated right now because I don't want to go through another adjustment period again, and having to face more side effects again. I even thought about slowly weaning off Sertraline, thinking that since I'm not going to college anymore I'll still feel a lot calmer and may not need the anti depressants at all. I know the minimum treatment for depression is six months... but I just don't know anymore.

Sorry again for the long post... help please :(

[4Maddie44]

We all react differently to meds, so it is hard to say whether the dizziness and tiredness is due to the anti-depressant.  I myself am on 150mg Effexor daily, and do not have those side effects. In your case it may settle down when you have been on the meds a while.

[nursegirl6572]

Thanks so much for the update!  I'm so glad you're feeling a little better!  The trial and error part of meds is very rough!  Sounds like the move you made to Effexor was a good one.  

The dizziness is hard to pin down.  When you're on muliple meds, it's hard to determine which could be the culprit, especially durung a taper.  If it's due to the Effexor, it is most likely a start up side effect and should resolve.  

Hope you keep seeing progress, stop by when you can and let us know, and of course if you have anymore questions, stop in.  Take care hon!!

[ilyena]

Thank you so much for your kind answer and I apologize for taking so long to reply. I've been away from the computer and the symptoms I was experiencing  got pretty bad for a while, but thank God things are going better now :)

I finally switched from Sertraline to Venlafaxine (35.7 mg). I've been on it for about three weeks. I decided the most responsible choice I could make was continuing my treatment as it was indicated. Along with my father, we decided I would take the minor dose instead of 75 mg, as my depressive symptoms were not too severe. So far my mood has been really good, and since I don't have diarrhea anymore, I've been feeling a lot better. The only side effects I've noticed so far are tiredness (especially the first week, I would sleep a lot. I still feel more sleepy than the usual, though I don't really consider that a problem) and dizziness. The dizziness is a bit more annoying and I was wondering if anyone has experienced this on Venlafaxine too. I constantly feel light-headed, and it's very unpleasant. I hope it goes away. I've also been tapering off Zolpidem and Clonazepam, which I used at night to sleep, but I get the feeling that the dizziness might come from Venlafaxine.

Also, about college, I only left for a semester to get some rest and follow my treatment, but I should be going back next year. Thanks for your good wishes, I really appreciate your support :)

[ilyena]

Hi... some updates. I went back to the previous Sertraline brand I was taking, started taking probiotics and have been trying to follow a diet that would lessen the symptoms of diarrhea.

Thing is, the first two days were alright (no diarrhea, but that would be due to the fact that I had to take an antidiarrheal on Saturday pill because I was going to spend most of the day outside). However, the past two days have been as bad as before. Today I didn't even feel like getting out of bed. So here I am, drinking Gatorade and feeling miserable.

I talked to my father, who is a family doctor and has some degree of knowledge when it comes to anti depressants and at first he wasn't too keen on my psychiatrist's choice of switching me to Venlafaxine, but seeing how things have gone, he's telling me we should follow her advice and gets frustrated when I try to talk to him about reconsidering it or maybe going to a gastroenterologist (I'm currently unemployed and my parents are all the economical suppport I have). My mother has been on Venlafaxine for three years with great results, but she had a really serious major depression, which isn't my case. When I tried to talk to her about why I don't want to take Venlafaxine, she got pissed and told me I was overreacting and that she had never had any withdrawal symptoms on Venlafaxine.

So, apparently my choices are taking Venlafaxine or just weaning off this is stuff, which I'm really considering, since following my treatment with Sertraline seems out of question... :/

[sara12345]

Talk about grammar and editing, please replace the sentence above with the following:  
"If that doesn't work, I don't know why your doctor is changing you to another medication which is NOT in the same classification as the Sertraline which has helped you."  I left out the NOT in the sentence.

So sorry.
from sorry Sara