Posted 3/16/2014 8:34 AM (GMT 0)
My 84 year old mother who has suffered from serious and unmedicated depression and anxiety all her life, finally agreed to take an antidepressant following a third fall 8 weeks ago (fractured pubic ramus, still very painful) and pretty much a complete meltdown mentally. For the pain, she had a weekly 10mg morphine patch, which finished on Monday 10 March. She was also taking 3 x 2mg valium each day.
She was prescriped Citalopram initially but it made her throw up all the time so the doctor put her on Sertraline (Zoloft). After 4 days on it (I was sure there was already an improvement in her mental state), she unilaterally decided not to take them any more, but only told me 4 days after that. At the same time, she lost the morphine, had decided to stop the valium and the Sertraline. She ended up shaking, not eating, nauseous, generally in a terrible state, both physically and mentally. Her GP and the family persuaded her to restart the Sertraline and today she has taken 5 tablets over 5 days (50mg).
Now she is unable to get up, has awful dry mouth, bad dreams, is not sleeping well and wakes up with fists clenched. I don't know what to do. Her GP just says keep taking them, don't stop again, but reading some of the threads I now wish we hadn't persuaded her to start again. She is not at all a strong woman and is not coping. She does take the occasional valium now that relieves some of the anxiety, but can anyone tell me how to assess whether it's better to stay on them now or come off again (we would do it gradually this time)...