[sushi]

i went to see my gp today to see if she can perscribe me some antidepressants. she gave me zoloft, but 50mgs isnt this too
many mgs to start off with? shouldnt she had given me this medication
on a much lower dose?

im going to call her tomorrow. but just want to know what you think.

thank you all

 

[Joandublin]

Hi Sushi

What made you think she made a mistake in the dosage? I'm not on this medication but did a quick google search with 'zoloft starting dose' and all the sites seem to say the starting dose is usually 50mgs and can be increased up to 200mgs daily.

If you are worried about easing them into your system you could start off yourself at 25mg for the first few days and work your way up but have a chat with your doctor before you do that.

I hope they help you
Luv n stuff
Joan:rose:

 

[sushi]

i just thought that they started at a much lower dose. When i took antidepressants about a year ago they started me with 25 if i can
recall correctly.

but i think thats a good idea to start with 25 to see how i react.

thank you Joan.

 

[Joandublin]

Was it a different anti depressant you were on a year ago Sushi? All medications have different dosages so you cant really compare one to the other. If it was the same one and you were started on 25mg first, then its a good idea to follow that path if it suited you at the time

I think its always a good idea to slowly get a medication into your system (unless of course its something thats urgently needed!). It lessens the side effects and allows your body to build up a tolerance.

Hope it works well for you
Luv n stuff
Joan:rose:

 

[sushi]

thats exactly what i want is for my system to adapt to it slowly i dont want to get a bad reaction at a higher dose. i dont quite remember if it was the same medication that was perscribed last year but im going to find out.

my depression has gotten worse and i need to do something about it now before i keep going downhill. im happy that at least im going to start something that will help me.(hopefully)



thanks again Joan

 

[sadieone]

Hi Sushi,

I found this information on the web about zoloft. I hope it is helpful.
The paragraph below the web link talks about your 50mg dosage concern.

http://www.rxlist.com/zoloft-drug.htm#ids

Panic Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder-ZOLOFT treatment should be initiated with a dose of 25 mg once daily. After one week, the dose should be increased to 50 mg once daily.
While a relationship between dose and effect has not been established for major depressive disorder, OCD, panic disorder, PTSD or social anxiety disorder, patients were dosed in a range of 50-200 mg/day in the clinical trials demonstrating the effectiveness of ZOLOFT for the treatment of these indications. Consequently, a dose of 50 mg, administered once daily, is recommended as the initial therapeutic dose. Patients not responding to a 50 mg dose may benefit from dose increases up to a maximum of 200 mg/day. Given the 24 hour elimination half-life of ZOLOFT, dose changes should not occur at intervals of less than 1 week.

Good Luck!

 

[sushi]

sadieone, thank you very much for this information
i havent started them yet but i will and i really hope that
they help me because in my mind im thinking nothing will

 

[Bullwinkle]

Sushi Dear. If you decide to try starting at a lower doseage just cut your pill in half with a pair of long sissors. I find short sissors don't do as good a job.

50 mgs. cut in half and 'voila' = 25 mgs. I do that with my prednisone when I am tapering down.
ps: In my experience Drs: usually know what they are doing, second guessing them might be counter-productive.

 

[Raglet]

people don't usually have bad reactions to going on to modern antidepressants, so just going on to the 50mg dose shouldn't cause you any problems. With lupus we get used to starting slowly and building up, but I have never found this necessary with newer antidepressants like zoloft. It is the older style antidepressants, the tricyclics, that have to be started very slowly and built up.

The lower the dose the longer it will take you to build up to a therapeutic dose to treat your depression. I would recommend taking the 50mg once to see if you do have any side effects, and then you will be able to make your decision on what you need to do (in cousultation with your doctor if necessary).

Each and every drug has a totally different dosing regime - of some drugs the standard dose is hundreds of miligrams, other drugs may be as little as 1 milligram (or less).

hth, and good luck with the zoloft

cheers

raglet