My husband has been taking Zoloft since being diagnosed with PTSD. It seems to calm him more than anything. For example, instead of snapping back an answer (whether or not he\'s irritated with me), he now thinks about his answer before delivering it. It also is helping his anxiety in new situations. We went to a party the other night and rather than have him tense and uncommunicative, he actually joined right in.

I have an interesting cocktail of medications to manage my PTSD, depression and anxiety. Zoloft was added to that mixture about a year ago when the celexa that I was taking stopped working for me. I\'ve noticed that I\'m not nearly as hypervigilant as I was before Zoloft. Don\'t get me wrong, Hypervigilance is still in my life, it\'s just not to the extreme that it was previously. I like Zoloft. It works for me. It works with my other medications, and I really don\'t have any side effects to speak of.

Meow

omg, that is awesome, thanks for the info Julie...i havent officially come out of the closet yet, but i have been slipping up here & there and telling ,my MOM that i am in the wrong body was the latest slip..like 2 weeks ago...she took it very well and said it explained of lot of my self punishment...

I was on Zoloft at the very, very beginning of my symptom onset...before I even knew it was PTSD.

It didn't work for me, I was on it for 'depression', b/c that's what I thought it was at the time, and I was breastfeeding, and about the only med I could be on while nursing.

See below for research done at the VA...interesting!!

Sertraline (ZOLOFT) reported to be INeffective for treating PTSD in VA patients: The Food and Drug
Administration has approved two SSRIs, sertraline and paroxetine, for treating PTSD.

Although several studies have shown that SSRIs are effective in veteran populations, a question exists as to
whether these drugs are also effective among veterans who seek VA care.

Investigators addressed this question in a randomized clinical trial that enrolled 169 outpatients from 10 VA
Medical Centers during 1994-1996. Most (80%) of the patients were male, and 71% had experienced combat. On average, the patients were 45 year olds and had experienced their index trauma 23 years prior. Patients received either sertraline or placebo for 12 weeks according to a flexible-dosing schedule; the average final dose was 135 mg/day for sertraline and the equivalent
of 172 mg/day for placebo. There were no differences in PTSD severity, the primary outcome, or in any secondary outcomes at the end of treatment. The average decrease on the Clinician-
Administered PTSD Scale was -13.1 in the sertraline group and -15.4 in the placebo group.

Results did not consistently differ as a function of gender, illness duration, illness severity, type of trauma, or comorbid substance abuse. These findings do not indicate that sertraline and other
SSRIs are ineffective for treating veterans or combat trauma. However, these medications may require augmentation with other treatments among VA patients who have chronic, long-term
PTSD.


Read the article Friedman, M.J., Marmar, C.R., Baker, D.G., Sikes, C.R., & Farfel, G.M. (2007).
Randomized, double-blind comparison of sertraline and placebo for posttraumatic stress disorder in a Department of Veterans Affairs setting. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 68, 711-720.
PILOTS ID 29522.

http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/nc_archives/newsletters/ctu_v1n3.pdf?opm=1&rr=rr1762&srt=d&echorr=true

I have just started Propranolol...it works on the fight or flight response stress hormones.

A couple other DS members are on it here. I am very interested to see if it helps. It makes perfect sense that it will work to help decrease anxiety, better than Benzo's, like ativan, b/c PTSD'ers have lots of circulating Catecholamines, like adrenaline, and Propranolol will decrease those, as Ativan will not touch those.

Check out out posts on propranolol, catecholamines, fight or flight...

Zoloft has helped me a LOT.. I've noticed that my anxiety and flashbacks have been GREATLY decreased. I am on 150mg and getting ready for an upped dose... however.. it has helped.. It's also helped my nightmares simmer down a bit.

The only "issue" I have with Zoloft is when I take it on an empty stomach.. but thats easily avoidable.

Zoloft made me suicidal.

Apparently, I don't need any more serotonin floating around in this head.

I'm with Daisy - I am with the Propranolol crowd. It definitely helps. I am looking for a medicine or medicine combo that treats the 3 catecholamines (adrenaline (epinephrine), noradrenaline (norepinephrine) & dopamine).

I don't believe SSRIs, SNRIs, NDRIs or tricyclics are a good FIRST choice in treating PTSD. I am *fervently* against the latter 3 because they raise catecholamine levels.

I believe in treating catecholamine levels IMMEDIATELY to reduce the likelihood of permanent PTSD illness and then review the patient to see if there are other psychiatric issues as well.

Many PTSDers want to believe they are getting well and will use whatever a drug offers, but serotonin is not going to fix the actual hormonal imbalance created by fight-or-flight chemicals. It will simply mask the problem until the levels rise to the point where the patient is volatile and unsafe.

I want more information about alpha-methyl-para-tyrosine (AMPT) because "this drug can decrease circulating catecholamines by 80%." To me, if catecholamines in excess are the PTSD problem, this is the med I want to know more about!

thanks for posting this!!!

i totally signed up for it :P

Anti-depressants, including Zoloft, have never helped me. I've been in treatment for PTSD and depression for some 25 years and have tried almost every anti-depressant out there. They just make me feel worse.

As others have said new research shows this is common for PTSD survivors. The only med I've ever taken that's helped is klonopin, and it's addictive.

thanks for posting this!! we're getting them for our group!

Thanks friend...Pam

This is a great website!

Added it to my favorites. I like how it is alphabetically set up. Thanks.

Great site. Thanks my friend we all need a few laughs!!Teri