topic Re: Need information on Zoloff. in Wellness

Need information on Zoloff.

little daisy — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 16:55:04 GMT

My husband was told he suffers from depression, I'm his care taker, I don't know a lot about depression medications. His doctor put him on Zoloff 25 mg he is going to see the doctor this week again. He has taken it now for 4 weeks. He needs to gain weight but I think this medication is making him not eat. I'm very worried about this. He dose not seem any better since he started to take this drug, so I need to know from people who have taken it if it help them and any thing they can tell me. All the doctor,say is take the pill it will help,well it has not helped at all.

Re: Need information on Zoloff.

Kachina624 — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 19:58:12 GMT

Have you ""googled"" it? There's a lot of information online. Sometimes finding the right anti-depressant involves a lot of trial and error.

Re: Need information on Zoloff.

vac — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 20:07:17 GMT

On 2/24/2014 kachina624 said: Have you "googled" it? There's a lot of information online. Sometimes finding the right anti-depressant involves a lot of trial and error.

Exactly. Sometimes several medications have to be tried before something that works is found. I will say that 25 mg is a very small dose of Zoloft, so perhaps it's not enough to be effective. Antidepressants usually do take a few weeks to work, but you might want to talk to the doctor about increasing the dosage or trying something else after another couple of weeks. Also, there are some medications that tend to make folks gain weight, so if he's not eating, there might be something that could help with that.

Re: Need information on Zoloff.

hckynut — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 22:39:37 GMT

On 2/24/2014 little daisy said: My husband was told he suffers from depression, I'm his care taker, I don't know a lot about depression medications. His doctor put him on Zoloff 25 mg he is going to see the doctor this week again. He has taken it now for 4 weeks. He needs to gain weight but I think this medication is making him not eat. I'm very worried about this. He dose not seem any better since he started to take this drug, so I need to know from people who have taken it if it help them and any thing they can tell me. All the doctor,say is take the pill it will help,well it has not helped at all.

I was on Zoloft for about 3 years and I had no problems or side effects from taking it. This types of meds don't show results like pain killers and blood thinners. With those types you know if your in pain and you also get blood reading numbers to know exactly if they are helping or not.

Have been on Wellburtrin(Bupropion)and Celexa(Citalopram) for many years now and no problems with any of them. These types of medications might take months to show results and any result has to be recognized by the patient, not a caretaker. Nothing against any caretaker as I've had one for many of my health and mental issues. When it comes to functions of the brain/mind, only the person knows if they are feeling better or not.

Diagnosed back in the mid 1990's with Anxiety/Panic Disorder and Clinical Depression. It is something that I believe cannot be cured, but can be kept in check by the patient on the right meds and clinical visits. It was close to 2 years before I thought I really felt like I had gained complete control over my life and it seemed more like 2 centuries for me.

Give him all the encouragement you can but do not forget this bottom line: His recovery and ability to live with these issues is up to him. The medications and clinical visits certain are a necessity, but a person has to put everything they have into these type of illnesses to keep them under control.

I wish both of you the best with this. Nothing in my life was worse than being in that "big black hole", and I mean nothing!

Re: Need information on Zoloff.

Suzeecat — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 22:53:59 GMT

Google Zoloft, the correct spelling, not Zoloff.

25 mg sounds like the starting point and it may need to be adjusted up from that. It takes at least 2 weeks to fully get into your system. Personally, I found Prozac to be a better anti-depressant. Both had an appetite suppressant effect at first, but that wore off after a couple weeks.

There are lots of choices on the market for anti-depressants. If this doesn't work, try another.

Re: Need information on Zoloff.

bbluvr — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 23:03:15 GMT

Zoloft is primarily for anxiety, but may help depression.

ON SOAPBOX: General Physicians should NOT be able to prescribe any antidepressants or mood altering drugs! They know nothing about them. They probably had one class in pharmacology and drug reps come and dazzle them with samples. They should be prescribed my a Psychiatrist.

OFF SOAPBOX: I have been on Prozac, Effexor(nasty stuff) and now I am taking Wellbutin and it is working well. I feel "normal." which is how you are suppose to feel.

My mother was on Zoloft and it worked well for her. She was very anxious as well as depressed.

Re: Need information on Zoloff.

winamac1 — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 23:06:38 GMT

25 mg is a very low dose. Zoloft needs to be titrated in most patients to 100 mg. in order to see effects. It's good they started him on a low dose. He may not be eating as it initially can cause some stomach upset. That should improve with time. It can also cause some diarrhea due to low bioavailability of the drug. If he needs to gain weight, he should probably be on immediate release Paxil. That can cause more weight gain , in some patients, than Zoloft.

25 mg. is a very sub therapeutic dose of Zoloft. It's the 2nd SSRI on the market, and it can make people gain weight-but it's hit or miss. I'd discuss bumping the dose up or switching to another SSRI. Wellbutrin would not be a good choice as it's weight neutral and if he has any anxiety, it can make it worse.

Re: Need information on Zoloff.

winamac1 — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 23:07:23 GMT

On 2/24/2014 bbluvr said:
Zoloft is primarily for anxiety, but may help depression.

ON SOAPBOX: General Physicians should NOT be able to prescribe any antidepressants or mood altering drugs! They know nothing about them. They probably had one class in pharmacology and drug reps come and dazzle them with samples. They should be prescribed my a Psychiatrist.

OFF SOAPBOX: I have been on Prozac, Effexor(nasty stuff) and now I am taking Wellbutin and it is working well. I feel "normal." which is how you are suppose to feel.

My mother was on Zoloft and it worked well for her. She was very anxious as well as depressed.

It's an antidepressant with some anxiolytic properties. It's not indicated for anxiety alone. It's indicated for depression.

Re: Need information on Zoloff.

little daisy — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 01:00:55 GMT

Thanks everyone, his primary doctor did not put him on this pill.

Re: Need information on Zoloff.

NeNe1010 — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 20:13:00 GMT

I was on Zoloft several yrs ago and it actually did make me lose weight. Not sure why. It helped me with the anxiety and depression etc. Maybe I was trying to self medicate with food and the Zoloft stopped that.

Re: Need information on Zoloff.

ChillyTulip — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 21:26:51 GMT

On 2/24/2014 bbluvr said:
Zoloft is primarily for anxiety, but may help depression.

ON SOAPBOX: General Physicians should NOT be able to prescribe any antidepressants or mood altering drugs! They know nothing about them. They probably had one class in pharmacology and drug reps come and dazzle them with samples. They should be prescribed my a Psychiatrist.

OFF SOAPBOX: I have been on Prozac, Effexor(nasty stuff) and now I am taking Wellbutin and it is working well. I feel "normal." which is how you are suppose to feel.

My mother was on Zoloft and it worked well for her. She was very anxious as well as depressed.

I beg to differ with you. Please refrain from making blanket statements about things you are clueless about. And good luck finding any psychiatrist who can see you in a timely manner . . . let alone one who takes insurance. Especially if the patient lives in a rural area.

And for what it's worth Zoloft has a dual indication for depression and anxiety.

Re: Need information on Zoloff.

julies — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 02:40:22 GMT

I've been taking Zoloft for about 6 months for anxiety and depression ( thank you perimenopause!). I take 62.50 mg a day.

I am VERY sensitive to meds and had to start very low ( 6.25 mg ). I definitely had side effects- nausea, jitters, headaches. They have all gone and I feel pretty darn good now!

25 mg. is a very low dose, and not therapeutic for most. It takes time for antidepressants to "kick in" as well. From my own experience, I would say he needs to up his dose and be patient . Give it time at a higher dose. Some times it takes trying a couple of different meds to find the right one as well.

Zoloft was the 4th med I tried, and it literally saved my life.

I wish your husband luck and I hope he finds that the Zoloft brings him some good results.

Re: Need information on Zoloff.

sfnative — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 03:55:59 GMT

So much of the time it really is trial and error. About 7 years ago I was placed on Effexor XR, while going through a bad patch at work and with DH. It worked.

However, several months ago the depression and anxiety I had were far worse than previously experienced. Having moved, I had a new internist who placed me on Paxil. Boy, I'll tell you this: what a difference between the two drugs. Paxil is the drug that I needed to quell the depression and anxiety. Actually, it works so well for me at 10 mgs I can hardly believe it.

I voluntarily went went off the drug for two months (taking too many meds, so wantd to go off it) and boy, that was a mistake. Started taking it again 2 days ago and the difference in me is like night and day.

Good luck to your husband. I hope you can find a better match.

Re: Need information on Zoloff.

winamac1 — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 04:20:06 GMT

On 2/26/2014 ChillyTulip said:
On 2/24/2014 bbluvr said:
Zoloft is primarily for anxiety, but may help depression.

ON SOAPBOX: General Physicians should NOT be able to prescribe any antidepressants or mood altering drugs! They know nothing about them. They probably had one class in pharmacology and drug reps come and dazzle them with samples. They should be prescribed my a Psychiatrist.

OFF SOAPBOX: I have been on Prozac, Effexor(nasty stuff) and now I am taking Wellbutin and it is working well. I feel "normal." which is how you are suppose to feel.

My mother was on Zoloft and it worked well for her. She was very anxious as well as depressed.

I beg to differ with you. Please refrain from making blanket statements about things you are clueless about. And good luck finding any psychiatrist who can see you in a timely manner . . . let alone one who takes insurance. Especially if the patient lives in a rural area.

And for what it's worth Zoloft has a dual indication for depression and anxiety.

Zoloft does not have an indication for anxiety. It has many indications including social anxiety aka social phobia. It is an antidepressant with anxiolytics properties and some indications that are anxiety producing. It is not approved for anxiety per se. It does not have a blanket indication for "anxiety".