Lustral & breastfeeding.

[pie]

Me again, can anyone tell me what the maximum dose of Lustral allowed for b/f?

Thanks.

Pie, I can't answer your specific question, but the Summary of Product Characteristics for Lustral states:

`Lustral is known to be excreted in breast milk. Its effects on the nursing infant have not yet been established. If treatment with Lustral is considered necessary, discontinuation of breast feeding should be considered.'

I'm not a medic or a pharmacist so I don't know if there are any other proucts out there that would be more suitable. Has your doctor discussed it with you at all?

Thank you for your concern gingernut, but Lustral (zoloft) is considered the safest of the SSRI's bar none. In the most recent study it was only found in 7 out of 11 women's milk during the study. My doctor, psychiatrist and Ob were adamant this was the best choice for me and there has never been a question of me stopping b/f (or when I was pregnant). Dr Hale has a lot of info on this. Many b/f mums on MN have also been on Lustral.

But again, thank you for the concern.

I'm going back to my doctor next week, I'm not sure that my dosage is correct so wanted to know what other people out there had been prescribed.

Should have said safest for b/f

Pie,
have you considered contacting the manufacturers direct? (Pfizer?)

Oh and although it is detectable in BM, I think its at a higher concentration than detected in the serum samples from babies of BF mothers taking sertraline - HTH
Lisa

Lisa, the company would say not to use it all, they all do to cover their legal backsides.

I'm not sure I understand your last post though, yes it is detectable, but not always and not at high levels.

Sertraline is lustral...or did you mean something else? I'm geing confuzed.

Er....sertraline and lustral are the same thing, Lisa...or they are in the books I'm looking at. Sorry if I am nmot understanding you.

Pie - try a PubMed search on lustral/sertraline and breastfeeding. There are several papers.

Thanks for the tip tiktok, I will have a look when DH lets me on the computer long enough!

sorry Pie, what I meant was although sertraline is detectable in breast milk, the fact that its at a higher level than can be detected in the infant feeding on that breast milk would suggest its readily broken down

yes, sertraline is lustral

??

Just saw this thread - I'm now feeding my 3rd baby while taking the top dose of Lustral (which, yes, is sertraline) and my GP and my psychiatrist have assured me it is fine to bf even at these levels.
If you are worried, get in touch with me if you want.

Hi Susan, hoping you would see this...can you tell me what the top dose is?

If you don't want to post it here then my email is:

pie (at) sabian (dot) net

Thank you

200 mg/day, for 8-10 weeks. otherwise 150 mg. hth

Thank you susan, I'm only on 50mg at the moment. Thank you again.

50mg is the bottom dose. A lot of people on Lustral do find they need to go up to the 100mg dose after a couple of weeks, so don't worry if this happens to you - 50mg is the starting or maintentance dose.
Hope you are feeling better soon.

Hi Susan, I've been on 75mg since Friday now, my Dr thought it would be best to go up in 25mg increments, so I could get the lowest dose possible that worked.

She did start going on a bit about how I really shouldn't be on it longer than 6 months (according to the BNF) does anyone have any info on longer safe use I could show her. Though I don't think she really would take me off at 6 months, but you never know.

Well I've now been on it since 3 weeks before ds was born and he#ll be 2 in 3 weeks. With PND a year is pretty common for all antidepressants - if I get a chance I'll get dh to look up the research for you. You shouldn't try to come off too early if you're not ready, cos you'll only relapse then you're back at square 1 again.
I started a PND thread for new mums in health if you want to talk about it more from a more general 'this is how crap I feel' pov!!

I don't think I will be ready to come off! I was on ADs when I got pregnant but stopped as I got pregnant, so I haven't been ready for a long time (I was on for 3 years prior again with only a break then for pregnancy and 2 years before I had DD1). If there is any research I would appreciate it, but only if its not a hassle.

How did you guys who have taken Lustral find the side effects? I took it, or tried to, years ago, long before I was pregnant and found it made me feel absolutely awful and stopped 3 days in. I've been wondering because I need to take something now to try to help my insomnia and am finding it hard to find a different drug that's as safe as Lustral but that won't give me such dire side effects.

TBH Evita, I feel VERY sick if I don't eat anything first but thats it, the only side effect I had, and that wore off after a couple of weeks (though is back a bit now I've increased my dose). Have you talked to someone about this though, as I think some ADs can contribute to insomnia. Hope you're ok though.

They don't usually prescribe the modern (SSRI) antidepressants for insomnia as they can actually interfere with sleep - I take mine in the morning and still have trouble getting to sleep some nights. But the older )trycyclic) antidepressants such as amytryptiline or dothiepin can help you to sleep - but only if you aren't sleeping because of depression.
I now get few side effects from Lustral - I was a bit queasy to start with and still have a bit of trouble sleeping, and I get 'restless legs' in the night some nights, but tbh rather than wanting to go to sleep and wake up in about, oh, June, it is much, much more bearable.