<p>Wis75, Thank you for sharing that information. Psychiatry is a slow specialty and I am thankful for psychiatrists who have stuck it out with me.</p>
<p>Fauxmaven: Actually, Zoloft does not cause weight gain, it causes increased appetite in some people. The only reason one would gain weight is because they are consuming more food. It does slow down the metabolism or anything like that.</p>
<p>Some important things to keep in mind when starting SSRI meds:</p>
<p>Most don’t “kick in” for at least 2 weeks, while the levels stabilize.</p>
<p>Response to dosage is widely variable. The oft mentioned initial side-effects
of jitters, anxiety & odd feelings are probably due to starting at a dosage that’s
too high. I know of people (myself included) whose therapeutic dose was much
lower than the recommended dosage. If your D starts to feel better at 25mg,she
might want to ask the Dr. if she can stay at that for awhile. They should have
provided her with a phone number for an advice nurse to call any time she has
a question or concern. I did compulsive research on SSRI’s before deciding to
try them for perimenopause related depression. I read details of clinical trials
and other research papers. In almost all cases, the side-effects occurred early
in treatment and resulted in people dropping out of trials within the first few
months. Some poor people were started on 200 mg/ day! Side-effects increased
with initial dosage. </p>
<p>Surprisingly, there is very little evidence to “prove” that these medicines work
in the way that is commonly shown in the model for SSRI activity. Neuroscientists
are still discovering the many different activities of these drugs. Prozac, for instance,
has been shown to stimulate neural growth (in rats). When I took Prozac I would
get a nice buzz about 2 hours after a dose, which is way to early for a serotonin
based reaction. My D took Prozac, which is the only one approved for kids under
18, for anxiety and it worked wonders. The advantage of Prozac is its long half
life in the body, reducing withdrawal effects if a dose is missed or when one wants
to discontinue treatment. People are often transitioned through Prozac when going
off a shorter acting medication. </p>
<p>Bravo to your daughter for getting the help she needs, and to you for supporting her.</p>
<p>This thread is from April. But I wanted to point out that waiting four to six weeks for follow-up is unacceptable, given the black box warning on this class of medications. A health professional should be checking on this patient weekly, at least by phone, and should see the patient more often. Ideally, the prescriber could refer the patient to a therapist to see the patient weekly.</p>