I’m 22, with epilepsy and some anxiety.
I’ve taken sertraline for the anxiety for 1 1/2 years. First I think it was 25 mg once a day, 75 for about a year, and now this month 100 mg.
Before I started on sertraline, I almost never got sunburned. I’d tan nicely, and it would take a lot of sun to burn my skin.
Then last year, while still on 25 mg, I was outside, wearing a winter coat, in 45 degree weather, for 15 minutes, and my hands burned bright red.
Ever since then, any sun, even a weak sun for short exposures, just burns me red wherever it hits.
Even using SPF 50 sunscreen seems to have no effect.
So my two questions are:
- Could the sertraline be the reason for the sunburn? I do also take Lamotrigine for seizures, and the dose was upped last year, from I think 300 mg a day to 500. But before the sertraline, I was on Lamotrigine for seven years with no burning.
- If you or someone you know has sertraline-related sunburn, what are some specific sunscreens or other methods that work, allowing you to go in the sun without burning?
