In addition to these common side effects, there is a possibility of more serious side effects when taking sertraline. Common symptoms of anxiety disorders, like fear, avoidance, and psychosomatic symptoms all respond well to sertraline. Sertraline has only been approved for the treatment of social anxiety disorder, but studies have shown that there may be benefits for a whole array of anxiety disorders.
Sertraline for Social Anxiety and Other Anxiety Disorders A 2000 study found that sertraline helps PTSD sufferers to find relief from their symptoms in the same year, sertraline was approved by the FDA as the first-line pharmacological treatment for PTSD.Īlthough behavioral interventions for PTSD are highly effective as well, sertraline is often used for people with PTSD who prefer to take medication over going to therapy.
Relatively recently, psychiatrists have started to use Zoloft in the treatment of PTSD. Symptoms of this PMDD are very similar to major depressive disorder, so it makes sense that sertraline would be effective for this condition. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder, or PMDD, is diagnosed when people with female reproductive organs experience symptoms of depression only at certain times in their menstrual cycle. Sertraline for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder Even a placebo drug, however, decreased panic attacks by 40 percent this means that sertraline decreases panic attacks by about half compared to placebo.Īs an important side note, sertraline has been found to be effective for people with panic disorder whether or not they also suffer from agoraphobia. Studies have found that Zoloft decreases the prevalence of panic attacks for people with panic disorder by up to 80 percent. We’ll go over more detailed information about the benefits of Zoloft for OCD in the next section. In fact, for kids under the age of 18, sertraline is only approved to be taken as treatment for OCD (not for depression). Sertraline is approved for treating OCD symptoms in both adults and children. Many people choose to take sertraline for depression because it tends to have fewer side effects than older antidepressant types. The effectiveness of Zoloft to treat major depressive symptoms is about the same as other antidepressant medications. There’s been no benefit found for depressed teens and children (although Zoloft does help teens and children with other mental health disorders, which we’ll talk about later). Sertraline is used to treat depression in adults over the age of 18 this is the main mental illness for which this medication is prescribed. Zoloft patent expired in 2006, and since then, sertraline has become available in generic form. Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approved it the following year. In short, the discovery of Zoloft was somewhat of a happy accident.Īfter enough clinical trials were conducted, Zoloft became available in the U.K. The company ended up patenting the most potent derivative as sertraline. A few years later, another chemist studied that compound and discovered that one of its derivatives was a serotonin reuptake inhibitor. created a new chemical compound called lometraline, which used to be prescribed as an antipsychotic medication. The History of Sertraline (Zoloft)īack in the 1970s, a chemist working at the multinational pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer Inc.
When there is enough serotonin available in the brain, it starts working properly again - in other words, the symptoms of the mental illness get better. SSRIs limit the reabsorption of serotonin into the neurons, which then increases the overall levels of serotonin in the brain. One neurotransmitter, serotonin, sends messages between neurons in regions of the brain that are responsible for mood. One of the ways that these disorders change our brains is through changing the patterns of release and reuptake of certain neurotransmitters. Mental health disorders like depression and OCD are neurological illnesses, meaning that they cause our brains to dysfunction. Other brand names for different drugs in the SSRI category include Prozac, Luvox, Paxil, and Lexapro.
Sertraline (or Zoloft) is far from the only SSRI on the market. Sertraline is mostly used in the treatment of clinical depression, but as we’ll learn later on, it’s used effectively for many other conditions as well - including OCD. Other common brand names that sertraline is sold under in Europe and the UK include Lustral, Serlain, and Tresleen. brand name for an antidepressant medication called sertraline, which is classified as a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (or SSRI).
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