Sertraline: What Is It For And What Are Its Side Effects?

Sertraline is one of the best-known psychopharmaceuticals for the treatment of major depression, panic attacks, social anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and obsessive-compulsive thoughts. It is also well known by its social name, Zoloft, and although it does not cure these psychiatric medical conditions on its own, it is very useful in alleviating and controlling the flow of negative thoughts and emotions.

Every time research on this type of chemical resource used for mental health treatment is published, a new controversy arises. Are they really necessary? Is the use of medication to treat these conditions essential? If so… what are the most effective options? Should we choose second- and third-generation drugs or can we stick with the usual, first-generation formulas?

As curious as it may seem, these same issues are also present in the daily lives of professionals and specialists who work with mental health.  If there’s one thing that’s pretty clear today, however, it’s that each patient requires and responds to a different, unique, and personalized strategy. There will be people who can overcome depression only through psychological therapy. Others, on the contrary, will need psychopharmacological treatment to gain motivation even to reach psychotherapy. Which treatment will be used may also vary in terms of quantity and frequency.

A few years ago the magazine “The Lancet” published a survey that compared the effectiveness of most drugs that treat depression. In the first places of effectiveness, sertraline appeared under the name of Zoloft. This selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) remains to this day one of the most useful remedies, and therefore also one of the most prescribed by professionals, in the treatment of mental disorders. Let’s see below what its mechanism of action is and what its side effects are.

What is sertraline? How does she act?

The effect of sertraline can only be noticed 4 to 8 hours after taking the drug. The person usually experiences relaxation, an improvement in their mood and greater mental control. The reason for this effect is due to its mechanism of action. We are facing a medication that inhibits serotonin reuptake. In essence, what it does is increase the presence of this neurotransmitter in the synaptic cleft, that is, increase its availability in our body.

Therefore, we speak of a chemical modification of our brain’s transmissions, which will have direct effects on our mood. There will also be other effects on our body, such as increased activation level, and psychological effects such as behavior change.

In what situations is the use of sertraline recommended?

As we discussed earlier, sertraline is mainly administered to patients with depressive disorders. It will help control the emotions, thoughts, and actions that often accompany this type of health condition, but it will not cure the disease by itself. It is also necessary to complement its action with other mechanisms, such as psychological therapy itself.

In addition to being useful in cases of depression, the drug has also been shown to be effective in the following cases:

• People with post traumatic stress 

• Patients with social phobia and panic attacks
• People with obsessive-compulsive disorders

Side effects associated with sertraline

We are facing a psychopharmaceutical. As the name already indicates, it is not a normal medicine, it is not a paracetamol or a dipyrone that we take in case of any pain. It must be prescribed and recommended exclusively by mental health specialists. That’s because serotonin reuptake inhibitors are effective but not without side effects. It has side effects and the incidence of this will depend on several factors.

The first one is the duration of treatment. The second is the personal conditions of each patient, since as we already know, not all organisms are equal. There will be those who do not tolerate the medicine, there will be those who notice an immediate improvement and there will be those who do not follow the recommendations and take it in the wrong way, combining it with other substances, for example, endangering their own health. We must therefore be very careful and follow clinical recommendations to the letter.

Let’s see what its main side effects are:

• Nausea.
• Dry mouth.
• Headaches.
• Abdominal pain
• Drowsiness or hypersomnia.

In more severe cases it can also cause tremors, palpitations, reduced libido and urinary incontinence.

Sertraline Considerations

An interesting thing about this remedy is that it improves its bioavailability if we don’t take it with meals. Furthermore, it is worth bearing in mind that if we are smokers or have a high consumption of alcohol, its effectiveness is noticeably reduced. This is something that we should discuss with our physician when he is deciding which pharmacological resource will be best for us.

Sertraline is also not recommended for children, adolescents and pregnant women, as well as for patients with kidney or liver problems.

Finally, let’s reaffirm once again the importance of following the specialist’s instructions. Psychopharmaceuticals, and especially this one that we have just detailed, remain today an essential part of the therapeutic treatment for depressive disorders, and even the most common strategy. Medication helps us feel better so that we can, in turn, work out the causes of the problem properly in psychological therapy.