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Weening Son (7) from Sertraline

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susan97130
susan97130

Hello -

My son (7) has extreme anxiety and we put him on zoloft this past Fall. After finding the right dosage (now extremely low) he is doing much better, but I don't want to keep him on it forever and am concerned about the side effects of weening off. We did try and ween him off about 1.5 months ago - we went down to 6 mg for 2 weeks then 0mg and he had a really hard time, so we went back on to get him back on track. 

I haven't read much about kids being on Zoloft on this blog - and I'm wondering if anyone has gone through this and can share their experience? Im worried that by being on Zoloft his brain is not creating the chemicals it needs to mature correctly, and Im sure my instincts are right. It is helping, but I don't want him to be on it forever and from what I've read, the longer someone's on it the harder and longer the withdrawal is. But, he needs it - at least for now. 

If anyone can speak from experience with their children please let me know.

Thank you.

0 likes, 6 replies

6 Replies

  • jeffrey66255
    jeffrey66255 susan97130

    Posted

    Hi, Susan,

    You didn't share how much Zoloft your son was taking before attempting to titrate his dose down. That said, I respectfully, but strongly, suggest that you ween him off of Zoloft under the strict supervision of a physician, especially with such a young man. These psychotropic medications are very powerful. Improperly proceeding could precipitate a storm of adverse effects.

    Sincerely,

    Jeffrey,

  • wayne76842
    wayne76842 susan97130

    Posted

    hi

    ​hope you little man gets better soon , it must be devastating at such a young age, i'm no dr but under the circumstances would he not have been better with an adrenalyn blocker like propanolol rather than the AD's to see if that stops his anxiety, take care

  • caroline02334
    caroline02334 susan97130

    Posted

    Hello Susan I'm sorry to hear your son has been put on Sertraline at such a young age although I have no experience with this you are dealing with a SSRI which of course are powerful drugs it seems your doctor deemed it that your son would benefit from being on Sertraline due to his anxiety in my humble opinion try a search on this drug in younger children, look into trials that have been taken, for the life of me I can't remember the name of the website but I will get it for you and maybe you could take a look. Hopefully there will be others on here that can give you information I wish you well in your search and the health of your boy xx

    Ps please don't ween your child without proper supervision from your doctor .

  • susan97130
    susan97130

    Posted

    Thank you. We fired our first pediatric psych - beause we started on 25mg and then it seemed to make everything worse, and instead of telling us to ween him down, the dr raised him to 37.5 which was awful and my son became clinically depressed and suicidal, something he was not before we started. He was simply over perscribed and i look back at that time with a broken heart. We went to a second psych (who we're still with) who agreed to ween him completely off, so we did per his schedule, but my so did not do well at all on 0MG, crying all day and anxiety again. So we're back up to 12.5 which is where we've been for 4 weeks. it worked very well the first 2 weeks, now the anxiety seems to be grabbing hold of him again, but i don't want to increase his dosage again because of what happened the first time. To make a long story short - we are talking with the dr tomorrow and ultimately I don't want him on ZOloft at ALL, but am so worried about the withdrawal effects as many people have said they last months. 

    Thanks in advance for any help/ advice.

     

    • caroline02334
      caroline02334 susan97130

      Posted

      Hello Susan I am sorry if this message is late maybe due to timezones but Thank you for replying. I am not medically trained but from reading your comments I would talk again with your doctor which I'm hoping you've already done . The withdrawals off any SSRI would be horrible for anyone as even though this may not be working for your son the body would still crave it ( Think on the terms of a addict) ideally your doctor should give something to help with the withdrawal symptoms I'm truly not sure what this would be as it would be down to your doctor to prescribe . Another factor to take into consideration would be it does take about a month for the Sertraline to kick in and again this would go for any SSRI unfortunately it is all trial and error, did you notice when your using the Sertraline if it's the same brand? This is another factor something which I and a lot of others have noticed, I myself was prescribed a different brand and I've noticed a very big difference which I will be sorting out today. Make sure you have the generic brand and not some cheaper version that you may have had for your son.

      If you feel your son is worse then do please insist on other medication you will know your son better than anyone else. May I suggest you have bloods taken to rule out anything that may cause these symptoms .. I'm sure you have already gone down this path but just in case you have not this would be a good starting point.

      I'm so sorry I cannot give anymore advice but please do write back as sometimes just talking can help especially a worried mum.

      I hope things improve greatly for you and your son please take care xx

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