New brand experiment

I have been taking sertraline 50mg for 6 weeks.  The first 4 were tough, all the side effects were hell but it had started to ease a bit.  Refilled my prescription and it was a new brand.  The next 2 weeks were horrendous, sweats nausea diarrhoea trembling crazy high anxiety all so bad I took myself to a&e thinking I had seratonin syndrome.  A lovely member on here suggested I was reacting to the new brand which was called crescent.  So yesterday after an argument with my doctor who said he didn’t believe that brands made any difference, I managed to get a prescription for accord sertraline.  So I am going to post here over the next weeks and keep track to see if my side effects improve.  20-30 mins after taking the crescent meds I would have really upset stomach and diarrhoea, I took the accord med an hour and half’s ago and my stomach is fine which is encouraging.  Fingers crossed for my experiment.  Any thoughts or similar experiences please share I would love to hear.  X 

Thanks for sharing! I have had No problems switching brand on sertraline. But when i was on lamotrigine, i could only tolerate the original brand name lamictal.

It’s clearly something that impacts on some people, yet my gp refuses to believe it, very annoying.  

Very true. My gp didn’t believe me either....

So my first day was interesting.  I had no stomach pain, normal bowel movement (tmi I know but you want the details really don’t you) my stomach has been so uncomfortable for 6 weeks so this has been a great day.   My anxiety is still there but I do feel calmer, now this could be placebo but hey, I will take it.   I don’t have any nausea but I don’t have my appetite still so will see if that picks up over the coming days.   So all in all my experiment is looking bright, roll on tomorrow.   smile 

DAY 2 

I think I spoke too soon.  Stomach pain back this morning 30 mins after meds and still here along with nausea and heightened anxiety, perhaps it’s just adjusting to new brand, that’s what I’m hoping.   Took diazepam to calm me down.  Will see how the rest of the day goes.  Feeling down today sad 

DAY 3 

Well today I decided not to take omeprazole with my sertraline and the difference is quite unreal.  I have no nausea no pain, more appetite, very low anxiety.  I decided to google interactions and to my horror I read that omeprazole can double the level of ssri in your blood.  So I wonder if this is why I have been feeling so awful.  Time will tell but today has been my best day in 6 weeks without doubt.   

DAY 4 

No omeprazole today again and no nausea.  Don’t know if it’s the brand change or the absence of omeprazole but either way I am feeling much better. I had lots of energy today and felt mostly calm.   Things are looking up.  smile