chronic, life-limiting illness now compounded by depression - advice?

[inamaymaybewrong]

Looking for some advice please. My mum has had a few rare, chronic and life-limiting illnesses for over ten years: scleroderma (now systemic), raynaud's, sjorgen's syndrome, etc. She's always managed to stay mentally strong and well, but since getting pneumonia at the end of last year, she's not recovered to her pre-pneumonia state. She's now struggling mentally for the first time and has been depressed for a few months now. She's not improving really. She's in the early days of anti-depressant treatment (2 weeks into taking Lustral aka Zoloft) but it's not helping. In fact, she's just sleepy, vacant, not interested in anything, just as before the treatment. Help? We're so worried. She's 75.

[Rumours]

In my experience it takes a good few weeks before feeling the benefits of antidepressants. Hope your mum starts to feel better soon.

[inamaymaybewrong]

Thanks Rumours, I didn't expect her to get worse before (hopefully!) getting better though?

[RoseDore]

I think you can sometimes get worse before the drug benefit kicks in but if you are really worried, perhaps you could encourage her to see her GP in the meantime. It should say on the patient leaflet (or check online) to see what the side effects are and if she is at risk.