To want to sue my local surgery?

[beeblabs]

TRIGGER WARNING: If you’re taking Zoloft/Sertraline and it’s working for you, best skip this thread.

A few weeks ago I started having dizzy spells and mild panic attacks. I also noticed my thoughts were getting racier (if that makes sense). I’ve suffered from an overactive thyroid and low blood sugar in the past, so I rang the Dr and asked for a blood test! They told me they couldn’t see me face-to-face due to Covid but asked if I wanted something for my anxiety and prescribed me 50mg of Sertraline.

From the first day of taking these tablets, I couldn’t eat or sleep! I’d lie in bed at night breaking out in cold sweats and twitching involuntarily. I rang the GP and asked them to change my meds, but they told me the benefits will outweigh the side-effects eventually and prescribed me Diazepam! By week 2, I felt like I was tripping on LSD and became utterly delusional (convinced I needed to take my life to save my son from the “evil presence” in the house!). I spent a few days in a psychiatric hospital before being discharged (when I stopped taking Zoloft, the delusions stopped).

Now my mother is talking about suing the local surgery. My husband said that I had a very rare reaction to a popular SSRI and despite my experience, they do help a lot of people.

I can’t help but feel that these mind altering drugs are prescribed too easily and there should be further tests before writing a prescription (especially over the phone, by a nurse practitioner!). I’m currently on a new antidepressant called Mirtazipine and I’m still taking Diazepam for my nerves.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with SSRIs? Or is it all positive?

I don't think you have a reason to sue, for the reasons others have pointed out.

Sertraline comes with a leaflet outlining common and not so common side effects. I read this when I was firstprescrivwdand decided to go ahead and take it knowing the risks level of each side effect.

Reactions like yours are thankfully very rare. I hope you see an improvement soon.

What's it got to do with your Mother?

Unless you take another medication that shouldn’t be taken with sertraline I can’t see that there was anything more they could have done. I’m sorry that you had such a frightening, horrible experience. We all know that medication can have side effects but that doesn’t prepare you for it happening to you. I hope you’re feeling better and that the new medication works for you.

don’t be so ridiculous

You won't be able to sue. My dad was discharged from hospital saying nothing was wrong and died within an hour. I can't sue for that as he would have died anyway so you have no chance. All drugs have side effects and you were unlucky.

Sounds like you had a more extreme (but still not uncommon) reaction that Sertraline sometimes has in the first few weeks. I felt absolutely dreadful for the first fortnight or so, and hallucinated, constantly woke up through the night with animals in my bed that I don’t own… it settled down though and has absolutely given me my life back. Even thinking about suing is ridiculous, concentrate on getting better. Good luck.

Don’t be stupid

I am on Mirtazipine and Fluoxetine, @beeblabs, and they work well for me (I'm on the combination for depression and anxiety - I think the Mirtazipine is for the anxiety, and it has helped).

Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything your surgery could have done to predict that you would have such a bad reaction to the sertraline - I don't think there is any test (certainly not one readily available to GPs) that would predict who is going to have bad side effects to a SSRI.

To be honest, the same is true of all the drugs that GPs prescribe - they can all have side effects, and the only way to find out if a particular patient will have a reaction to a particular drug, is to give the drug to that patient. If the patient does have a reaction to a drug, that should go into their medical records, so they don't get it prescribed again. It can also be an indication that they may have similar reactions to similar drugs, so the doctor would avoid those too.

I don't think you would be able to sue your GP practice unless you could prove that they knew in advance that you would definitely have a bad reaction to the sertraline, and prescribed it anyway without warning you of the possible side effects.

Doctors can and do prescribe drugs that they know have side effects - for example, I am sensitive to adrenaline - when I've had it injected prior to dental work, I get a racing heartbeat and faintness. Since we found this out, I have had more dental work, but the dentist has used the local anaesthetic without adrenaline - but if he or a doctor felt that I needed adrenaline, and the benefits would outweigh the side effects, they would still give it - but they should discuss it with me and warn me ahead of time.

In your case, your GP had no way of knowing that you were going to get such nasty side effects, so there was no negligence there, I'm afraid.

What do you mean "especially by a nurse practitioner"? Are you implying that if a GP had spoken to you there would have been a different outcome/treatment? Those side effects are very common - you'll have got a patient information leaflet in the box - read it.

Sueing for what exactly?

YABVU. You have no reason to sue so why would you

You know Mirtazipine is an SSRI too? So you're considering suing the practice for prescribing you one SSRI, whilst taking another that they have prescribed? If you think they acted so shockingly, why are you now taking another SSRI that they prescribed, unless you think it might help?

Sounds awful but I don’t see where there are grounds for sue (am not a lawyer)
People suffer adverse reactions to drugs all the time

They tried to help you, op

Do you understand that ?

What?

Your mother is being ridiculous.

I’m sorry you had a bad reaction but of course you shouldn’t sue them. You don’t have any grounds to, first of all. But just in general it’s a ridiculous idea.

I imagine all your side effects are in the patient information leaflet as known side effects. I hope you are feeling better soon.

Jesus Christ I've seen it all now!!

If a medication is making you ill you just stop taking it! You don't bloody sue the Dr!! Get a grip!

And what grounds does your Mother think you can sue on.

You had a really bad reaction to a drug. The doctor had no way of knowing it. Its been a horrible experience but its not the Doctors fault.

Im sorry this happened to you but I’m pretty sure that what you described is listed in the leaflet as a potential side effect.

I hope you feel better soon

I can’t be the only person to have read that OP has had overactive thyroid and low blood sugar in the past. This seems to have been the main reason for her request for a blood test. It’s not true that blood tests can’t be taken because of covid, our surgery is doing them.

Did they check your bloods to rule out thyroid problems before it was prescribed?

@Noodella18

You know Mirtazipine is an SSRI too? So you're considering suing the practice for prescribing you one SSRI, whilst taking another that they have prescribed? If you think they acted so shockingly, why are you now taking another SSRI that they prescribed, unless you think it might help?

No it isn't.

Don’t waste your precious mental reserves on planning legal action or on posting threads on here. Just get well. xx

I doubt you would get anywhere trying to sue them but I do see where you’re coming from in terms of the tests - I thought it was pretty standard for them to run blood tests to check things like thyroid levels in people with symptoms of depression / anxiety, especially if you’ve had issues with thyroid levels in the past and it’s caused the same symptoms you were experiencing recently.

Your mother is a silly lady, there is no case to answer . A solicitor would laugh her out the door.