zoloft and seizures

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Hi Mary Ann, I take Zoloft and am on 150mg. Its not really working for the anxiety, depression. I also take 800mg of Tegretol xr. In all of everything that I have read, the two should not be mixed. But, I have been on the Tegretol for 17 years, and the zoloft for now 5 months. I have not had any problems with increased seizure activity. The only thing that I notice is my hands shake sometimes when I am holding something. But only sometimes.
I will probably be weaned off the Zoloft as it is not really helping with whatever is wrong with me. I have been told it could be thyroid, hormones, etc. I have never had depression, anxiety, etc in my life and then all of a sudden it hit within one week, and I hit rock bottom. No one knows why.
To be honest, I hate being on the drug - I am not a pill person!!!
Good luck
Cameo

By cameo on Tue, 03/07/2006 - 10:18am

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Re: Re: zoloft and seizures

Hi,
I am on Topamax and Lamictal and they had me on Zoloft well before I started these meds. I switched meds due to manufacturer discontinuation of old meds. I have had about 5 seizures in the past year to year and a half. they were completely under control with other meds. I don't really think the Zoloft has affected the meds though. Both of my doctors know I am on it.
Mary

By themaleys on Tue, 03/28/2006 - 7:50pm

They put me on topamax and

They put me on topamax and lamictal too about 2-3 years ago i have 1-2 seizures a year and they are control'd and i use them as stress relevers, its only when its my time of the mth imagine that it hates it too... Before this i was on every med they could try it was intreasting. i am glad to here the topamax and lamictal are doing the same for you! I would remind them you are on zoloft, pending on your doctors sometimes can be little slow!! i went to mine 4 times told her i had seizures she told me i didnt i just thought i did so we thought ok maybe it was somthing else and i was way to stressed.. yeah so i am sitting on the couch on night with my dad and mom and i woke up in an ambalance hey turns out i had seizures but they will go away in a year its a growing thing.. i was 14 i am 27 next mth. haha . i love carroll county doctors anyway, glad to here your doing good. You all seem so nice, its nice to meet allot of people on here!! **Tami**

By tami27 on Wed, 03/29/2006 - 3:53am

They way I understood the answer to my question, is that the zoloft which I already have sent away for, as I get my meds through this mail in pharmacy as I use to work for this company that helps me pay for it that way. Anyway, I do have epilepsy and just was wondering if the medicine zoloft will increase any seizure activity?

By neno3 on Sat, 09/24/2011 - 6:14am

Hi Mary Ann, I've just joined this forum because I seem to have had a similar experience with Zoloft and wanted to find out some more information. I began taking Zoloft last week Wednesday. I took 25mg for the first two days and then started on 50mg for the third day. On that third day I suddenly got really tired...like no other tiredness I had ever experienced...and then an hour later while I was sat in borders bookstore and I started to 'zone out' and began to feel warm tingles across my cheek bones, a tightness at the back of my head, nauseated from my stomach to my throat, and my leg began to twitch. This lasted about three minutes and I continued to have these episodes for few hours. I've experienced this every day except this Wenesday for the last week. The seizures seem to last anywhere from thirty seconds to three minutes and I always feel like I have been hit by a truck when wake up the next morning...I normally have the seizures late afternoon. I had an EEG yesterday, but still don't have the results. Also, I've got a form of ADHD (type four Temporal lobe ADHD), which means that the bood flow to my temporal lobes and frontal lobes are substantially below average (had a SPECT scan) and I also have food intolerances, multiple chemical sensitivites and chronic fatigue syndrome. My psychiatrist has also put me on Tegratol XR. Susan Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population. Albert Einstein

By Shosh on Thu, 02/09/2006 - 4:17am

The worst thing to be without........hope Hi Susan, I haven't been on in awhile, zoloft was wonderful until I was diagonised with epilesy, however looking back I can now honestly say that I can contribute alot of my confusion to the zoloft. i am now on tegatrol, 200mg, xanaz as needed. As scared as I get with the thought of going out I have started to venture out without taking the xanax. I have come to the conclusion that you must take some control over your anxiety, your epilesy/seizure disorder/what ever lable you end up with. When I get bousts of insomia,I leave the bedroom, couch, and I start something boring, within a couple of hours I am able to sleep a couple of hours. I have decided that I am going to accept this and make the best of a bad situation. I am tired of doctors, medications and family dictacting my life. I haven't worked in 4 yrs and that is my main focus now, i am going for another eval to see how much futher i have come since my intial brain injury, although the tegatrol is helping my siezures, [so far 3 wks seizure free}, I have noticed slight leg tremours and twiching, along with confusion when I e-mail or write, I am currently trying to locate an optomotrist who works with the pts visual program. I am constanly trying to educate myself and trying extremly hard to get seizure free. I want my independence back, I want as much of me back as I can possiably get. In your first seizure you become invisable, dependent, and lok to your doctor for everything, I still have down days but i have more up days now, i have also notice weight gain with the tegatrol, I was scared to get out to walk butI am doing it, I carry ID, cell phone at all times. My husband and I get into because he is afraid of the "what if's". His concerns are logical yet at the same time I am suffocated by them all, I cannot life in fear of the "what if's" anymore. I have some good advice Susan, make sure your shrink, nuerologist and primary are all on the same page with your med's, mine weren't and that's how I got into the problems with zoloft. I was on many med's for the past year and a half. I had allergic reactions to so many med's, I am also allergic to sulpha so the list was futher diminished, my eeg's always read normal, but I have learned that is normal, I have scar tissue on my brain from my injury, I tend to do many things in reverse, you learn to compansate for the deficets, eventually you come to terms, eventually you heal emotionally. Good luck Susan.

By Mary A... on Tue, 02/14/2006 - 11:33pm

I came across this thread while looking for information about Zoloft possibly causing seizures. So here is my story:

So i was originally on Cymbalta for depression, and no history of seizures. Then my insurance dropped Cymbalta, which left me reeling to find a replacement that wouldn't drain my wallet. After a couple of misses, my GP suggested Zoloft, which worked great for my anxiety and depression. BUT 3 days after my first dose, i had my first ever Tonic-clonic seizure while at work [ in front of all my co-workers and a few customers]. That was a couple of weeks ago. Since then i've been back and forth for blood work, and EEGs. I've had 7 total seizures of different types.

I've never had anything like this before. I FINALLY got to speak to my neurologist this morning. My EEG looked normal, but she suggested an MRI and a 3 day V-EEG. However, she said she doesn't believe the seizures are epileptic. She believes they are a result of the Zoloft. She said that it is rare for Zoloft to cause seizures, but not unheard of in the right circumstances.

So no more Zoloft for me EVER, i'm on 200mg Tegretol daily. And i now have a medical petition to reinstate coverage of the old Med for my insurance!

I hope anyone looking for answers finds them. It may be rare for it to cause seizures, but not impossible.

By kroger04 on Fri, 06/04/2010 - 12:10pm

Zoloft does trigger seizures

Sunday afternoon my daughter invited me over for dinner before dinner she took a pill at the time i didnt know what it was it was Zoloft , so we were eating dinner and we were standing in the front room talking all of a sudden she was not responding to me her eyes looked like they were about ready to pop out of her head and she turned zombie and was not responding to me then she fell backword on the floor and started to shake and foaming at the mouth and gagging i called 911 while talking to 911 then she died i said o my god she just died so i went got her address and went back in the house she came back to life i was yelling and trying to help her she would not respond to me she got up looked at me with zombie eyes set on the couch and the police and ambulance showed up and she got of the couch took off running down her hallway and dove out her kids bedroom window ambulance people had to get her out of the back yard she struggled with them they finally got her calmed down got her in the ambulance she started to snap back in the ambulance but couldnt remember her age or name then they got her to the hospital and she snapped out of it and she was just fine but i see she lost some of her memory shes forgetting apt and she forgot she had a job before the seizure my grandson told me she fell down stairs and fell in her bed room and didnt remember what happened she doesnt remember none of this watching your own kid die was damn scary i am still shocked over this and the doctors wont to a damn thing for her we flushed her Zoloft down the toilet she is having massive withdrawals also Zoloft is a population reduce drug they want to kill everybody

i took Zoloft in the past it made me sick watching your own daughter die was scary so anybody thats taking this drug i woud be careful

By MichaelM on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 1:57am

Okay so here is what happened to me- I have been racking my brain for 3 years trying to find out if there is anyone else out there that has experienced what I have. 3 years ago my doctor put me on Zoloft for anxiety and I was on it approx 45 days when my seizure hit. It was late in the day and I had a grand mal seizure while at work. I have never had a seizure before or any indicators of being senstive to having one. I immediately came off the zoloft and since then I have been on Lamictal everyday due to abnormal EEG. I have not had a seizure since. So I have only had one im my life and it happened to be while I was on zoloft.

Anyways, so my doctor has told me that she only has me on the Lamictal because of my abnormal EEG-But then in the next breath she says there are probably thousands of people walking around with abnormal EEGs that they just dont know it. Personally I'm wondering if my abnormal waves made me sensitive to a seizure and when I was on Zoloft -the meds just "made it happen"-everything lined up for a seizure.

My neuro swears that it was not the Zoloft but I feel like in my heart it was-especially reading how it affected other people. My neuro wants me to stay on my Lamictal but I am a totally different person-forgetfulness, short fuse, sleepy, low sex drive, etc. This has gotten so bad my husband went to the doctor with me and we discussed me coming off since I have been seizure free for 3 years now. He even made the statement "I want my wife back, this is not her" I felt horrible because I know too how the medicine has changed me. Anyways my neuro told me she could not assist me in coming off and that she could be held responsible if I were to have another seizure while off.

6 months after that conversation I am weening me off the Lamictal myself. I went from 200mg daily to 100mg daily over a span of 2 months. I'm a little anxious about not ever knowing if another seizure will happen but I also believe in God's protection and I am praying for God to give me peace about this if I can handle it. I was just wondering if anyone else has or knows of anyone only ever having one seizure in there life while on Zoloft and then having abnormal EEG.

By skipperc1 on Wed, 03/23/2011 - 2:27am

My wife has epilepsy and has had no seizure for 5 yrs. She takes 200mg of Lamictal 2x a day, 7 weeks ago she gave birth to our 2nd baby, was diagnosed with post pardum depression yesterday was given Zoloft .25 2x/day......today she seized! Yes it definately causes seizures!!! 5 years seizure free and in 1 day Zoloft brought it back.

By tonylucas on Tue, 11/30/2010 - 8:01pm

Friday night my daughter was with a Friend in a pickup truck she went off scamming and opened the moving pickup door and jumped out onto the pavement ended up in the hospital for 6 hours on morphine and Tramadol with pavement burns all over her body from Zoloft withdrawal bad stuff folks

If you stopped using Zoloft abruptly and are experiencing the symptoms you do, you probably developed withdrawal syndrome. All of your symptoms including mental confusion, joint pain, dizziness, stomachaches, nausea, tremors etc. are signs of withdrawal. The withdrawal symptoms usually last for 1-2 weeks but in some cases they decrease over a period of one month. It is recommended that the usage of Zoloft is gradually decreased. What happens is that Zoloft has a half life for about one day. That means that every day that passes without you taking Zoloft, the level in the blood falls about 50%. After two days the level of Zoloft is reduced to 25%, after three days to 12, 5% and so on until it wears out completely. And because of its half-life, it can cause many problems. There is one particular, very unpleasant withdrawal symptom called REM Behavior Disorder. When moving your eyes too quickly, you dream in sequences- you are awake but you have hallucinations like you are actually dreaming. If something like this happens contact your physician.

By MichaelM on Sun, 08/01/2010 - 8:49am

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