Coming off sertraline in pregnancy

[MeerkatMerkin]

I have been on 50mg sertraline since last June. I recently discovered I was pregnant again so went to GP to discuss taking the sertraline whilst pregnant. She felt I had made good progress and recommended that I come off them due to this and due to a small risk of congenital heart defect in the foetus if taken in early pregnancy. She said to just go cold turkey.

I am now 6 weeks pg and the last time I took a dose was Friday morning. I am getting dizzy spells, everything feels in slow motion, if I refocus too quickly I get sort of electrical impulses (or it feels like that) in my head which is a bit spooky.

What I want to know is, is all this normal? I can't "slow down" as I have an energetic 2yo to run around after. Also, has anyone else come off sertraline in pregnancy? I was quite anxious throughout my pregnancy with DS and I'm a bit concerned that I will be over-anxious without the sertraline. I wouldn't have chosen to come off it I wasn't pregnant.

Bump?

Under no circumstances should you go cold turkey. What a stupid dr to suggest such a thing. You should do it gradually if at all. I would also suggest talking to your consultant/ midwife. I was on citalapram and got pregnant I called my consultant and she said it was fine up until 20 weeks. I stopped at 22 weeks and my 7 week old boy is doing fine and very healthy. If you need the meds take them as pregnancy will give you all sorts of anxiety. I was sooooo worried throughout my pregnancy and when u spoke to the midwife at the hospital about my fears just before having Ds she said soooooo many people are taking ad's and alot of people are taking much worse than that!!!!! See another GP. Good luck x

I was on citalopram before getting pregnant and came off it cold turkey which was not a good thing to do. By 12 weeks pg I was in a bad way and was on 100mg sertraline for the rest of pregnancy and beyond and breast fed my DD (who is 7.5 and totally fine :))

I disagree with your doctors treatment - it is obviously hard to know for sure the effects of taking ADs during pregnancy but in my case not taking them would have been a lot worse. Please go and see your doctor and explain the side effects you're having. It may be that being on ADs is better for you.

Marking place as I disagree with your doctor and will come back to share my own experience.

I didn't think it was necessarily a good idea to go cold turkey but I was scared about the heart defect thing. A week on I am still having dizzy spells but to be honest my body is doing lots of weird things and I really have no idea what is the withdrawal from the sertraline and what is pregnancy stuff. As I have been a week off them now I will give it another week and see if the dizziness settles down. If not I will go back to the GP and talk to her about my symptoms. Technically I could just start taking the drugs again as I have a couple of packs at my disposal but I don't know if I would then begin to get side effects from starting on them again if that makes sense?! I don't want to make things worse!

Thank you for taking the time to reply and sharing your stories - in particular that your DC are healthy after taking ADs in pregnancy. It gives me reassurance should I opt to go back on the medication. I am trying to control my anxieties and rationalise that DS is fine so there is no reason I shouldn't have another healthy child at the end of this pregnancy. Hopefully I will be a bit more chilled out this time as it is my second pregnancy and I know that certain symptoms are normal and nothing to panic about.

I won't go into great detail as it seems like you are doing ok now but in case you decide to go back on the medication I will mention a few things. I don't have the figures to hand right now but I believe the rate of heart defects among babies born to sertraline users is 3%, as opposed to 1.5% in the general population (as I said I would have to double-check that). I have a DS aged 2.5 and a DD aged 13 weeks, and took 50mg sertraline throughout both pregnancies. For both of them I had a more detailed scan at 20 weeks, to check the heart very carefully, and there were thankfully no issues. With DD she had a follow-up appointment to check her heart at around 8 weeks of age (I believe this is a new protocol since DS was born, they are always changing things around here) and again, no problems.

I live in the Netherlands and for maternal prescription drug use during pregnancy we have a thing called a 'clinical confinement', where you stay in hospital for a few days and they keep a close eye on the baby to make sure all is ok. Sertraline is not a high-risk drug but the protocol is there so they follow it (very Dutch I must say). Neither of my babies suffered any ill effects which could be put down to 'withdrawal' from the medication - my son was very very unsettled and at first they thought that could be why, but he went on to be like that for the first six months of his life and only calmed down once he became mobile and could do things for himself, so I don't think it was the sertraline! My DD was much more recent so I can tell you that even with nurses checking her carefully every few hours and paediatricians every day, they could not find a thing wrong with her.

If at all possible I would ask to be referred to a psychiatrist if you decide to try meds again - GPs often simply don't know enough about these drugs to give good advice, and telling you to quit cold turkey is a classic example of this. But anyway I am glad to hear that you feel like you can cope, and I wish you a very happy and healthy pregnancy

Uh in case it was not obvious with my bad translation and sentence structure I meant that the "clinical confinement" involves staying in hospital for a few days after giving birth.

Hi Meerkat

I picked up your thread whilst doing some research on Sertraline in pregancy as I'm on 50mg and am around 6 weeks pregant.

I was on 20mg Fluoxetine last year and the 20 week scan showed that he had a very serious heart defect so we decided to terminate. I'm terrified of both coming off the meds and my my baby being affected by me taking them so I'm feeling really anxious about the whole thing.

Could you please let me know what the outcome of your decision was in the end?

Hope all is well x