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Question:
I have been on Zoloft 100mg for about 3 years, gained about 20 pounds on it but has really helped. I want to go off it, went down to 50mg then 25 mg. At 25 mg I started having a lot of problems sleeping, and when I did sleep I had really bad dreams. My doctor gave me Atavan (?) to take at night and that makes me sleep, but during the day I'm feeling a lot of anger and ups and downs. I went back to 50 mg and Atavan at night, I'm thinking maybe the Atavan is counteracting the Zoloft? Any ideas?
Answer:
you raise several questions in this thread but a lot of information is missing. Some considerations are: how rapid was the taper down from 100 mg to 25 mg (days? weeks? months?); what was the diagnosis or diagnoses for your condition (?major depression, single episode or recurrent; panic disorder; dysthymic disorder, personality dsdr ); what is the dose of ativan prescribed; are the mood swings/anger similar to what you experienced before treatment with Zoloft; are there any issues unrelated to zoloft which might be part of this (e.g., the holiday season). Nightmares are not unusual with antidepressant tapers; they usually are self-limited. It seems to me that another consultation with your MD is in order- if he is a psychiatrist, all the better; if he is a primary care doc, a psychiatric consulation is best (familiarity with medication side effects,etc). Your symptoms could be related to a recurrence of the original disorder, or might just be due to too rapid a taper or an unwise choice of time of year to do a taper., or might be a combination of disinhibition by ativan (a "loosening up efect" similar to drinking., or due to poor sleep or some combination of factors. There are now several antidepressants available which do not cause weight gain; whether they will work as well for you as zoloft will need to be determined. The above information is very general and is not intended as a substitution for consultation with your physician. I had a problem several years ago when I was on atavan(sp). It made me *VERY* mean so the doctor took me off of it and put me on buspar which helped.
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