Does sertraline cause gastritis?

[Moopi]

I have been on 50mg sertraline for 18 months for severe anxiety that is so much better now. I have been having a few bouts of gastritis and indigestion. One was 6 months ago and really severe as I had constant nausea, stomach pain, couldn't eat, bloated, felt full etc. Saw GP who diagnosed gastritis and after about 6 weeks of high strength PPIs it got better.

It has now come back again and i am feeling really awful. I've only just made the possible link with sertraline as when I woke up this morning I felt OK but then took my sertraline and instantly got stomach pain. I know it can give you heartburn if you don't drink it with enough water so now I'm wondering if taking it on an empty stomach has done something to my stomach lining?

I will have to start to eat breakfast before I take it and see what happens. I don't normally eat breakfast so that probably hasn't helped.

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced similar?

You're supposed to take it with food, that's probably the issue

The instructions say to take with or without food

Oh well when I was on it my GP recommended taking with food, so worth a try to see if it irritates your stomach less.

@Moopi I know this was posted a while ago but I'm on 50mg of Sertraline and having the same symptoms. Will be contacting the GP soon but just wondered if it had improved for you?

No it didn't improve. I ended up having really bad gastritis for 3 months and an endoscopy etc. My GP and the gastro consultant both said it wouldn't be caused by sertraline but I decided to stop taking it and the symptoms improved by 90%. I can now manage it with Gaviscon.

That's awful. Stuff I've read this morning definitely says there's an increased risk.... my symptoms are upper abdominal bloating and discomfort with cramping lower down. I'm very windy. Relieved a little by having a bowel movement. Its a constant dull ache but, it woke me up at 3am this morning and I went into a full blown panic attack. I took sertraline for 12 months, had a 2 month break then restarted it almost 3 weeks ago.

Did you change your medication? I'm glad things have since improved but it's awful having to go through all that.

Mine flared up due to a change in the generic setraline pills they gave me. Doc prescribed Omeprazole and that solved the problem.