Post by glennb on Sept 10, 2009 20:01:47 GMT -5
My sister's daughter, Caroline, was prescribed Zoloft while away at school. The time she started taking Zoloft coincides with the time her grades started to slip. A year later a prescription for Adderal(pure amphetamine) was added to the Zoloft. Now she was also diagnosed with ADD.
This did not help her grades in fact exactly the opposite. She ended up taking one course her last semester and flunking it. During this time period she was also involved in a serious car crash, totaling the car.
Caroline returned home and my sister noticed that her behaviour had changed she started doing outrageous things like disappearing with the car for days at a time, stealing checks and embezzling money from her parents checking account. Last week she took the car without permission and within a half a block managed to hit a parked car and roll the car she was driving! 8,000 dollars worth of damage done and she was behind the will less than a minute! (This is her second recent serious crash).
Her behaviour became increasingly bizarre & finally delusional. This resulted in Carolines first visit to psychiatric emergency . She was hospitalized for a week then released and seemed fine until she started taking the Zoloft again. Four more stays in the Psych ward followed. Each time she got out she seemed fine and when she came home and resumed taking her meds she started to unravel again.
One day I witnessed for myself that when she took Zoloft within 20-30 minutes she couldn't think straight and became slightly delusional.
I did some research and found out that for some people Zoloft CAUSES pychosis.
Also causes something called Acting Without Thinking...that would certainly describe Carolines recent behaviour. This was brought to the attention of the doctors at the hospital and they took her off the Zoloft. Caroline seemed fine was really doing well and then once again she started to unravel..Turns out she went back to her old doc and secretly got the Zoloft perscription again!!! Her judgement has been seriously impaired.
Now she is back in the hospital.
I believe based on what I have witnessed that Zoloft is incredibly dangerous.Caroline used to be a very bright, multi talented young lady with a promising future. She seems to have lost much of her intellect and ability to reason. Her perceptions and motor coordination are not right. She has lost almost all of her friends and has been living a very isolated life, has taken to wearing hoodies pulled down over her head and huge dark sunglasses even at night. Her behaviour has become increasing ly weird.
I don't know if whe will ever recover from the damage the Zoloft caused.
This is a tragedy, to see a gifted young girls life essentially ruined by a prescription drug.
I don't believe Caroline was ever truly depressed in the first place. Turned out she was anemic and had low thyroid. That would be enough to account for her listlissness.
I don't know what can be done about this legally. I am furious at a medical system that was so quick to write prescriptions for drugs with potentially devastating side effects that were never explained to the patient and then the patient was not followed up to make sure she was not having dangerous side effects. Caroline was on Zoloft for over two years;. I wonder how long it will take, if ever for her brain to recover and for the damage done to her lifve to be repaired.
I am posting this to warn others of the potential dangers of Zoloft. If the family had not noticed the connection between Zoloft and the crazy behaviour the doctors would probably never have figured it out and Caroline could have wound up being permanently institutionalized or living on the street.
This did not help her grades in fact exactly the opposite. She ended up taking one course her last semester and flunking it. During this time period she was also involved in a serious car crash, totaling the car.
Caroline returned home and my sister noticed that her behaviour had changed she started doing outrageous things like disappearing with the car for days at a time, stealing checks and embezzling money from her parents checking account. Last week she took the car without permission and within a half a block managed to hit a parked car and roll the car she was driving! 8,000 dollars worth of damage done and she was behind the will less than a minute! (This is her second recent serious crash).
Her behaviour became increasingly bizarre & finally delusional. This resulted in Carolines first visit to psychiatric emergency . She was hospitalized for a week then released and seemed fine until she started taking the Zoloft again. Four more stays in the Psych ward followed. Each time she got out she seemed fine and when she came home and resumed taking her meds she started to unravel again.
One day I witnessed for myself that when she took Zoloft within 20-30 minutes she couldn't think straight and became slightly delusional.
I did some research and found out that for some people Zoloft CAUSES pychosis.
Also causes something called Acting Without Thinking...that would certainly describe Carolines recent behaviour. This was brought to the attention of the doctors at the hospital and they took her off the Zoloft. Caroline seemed fine was really doing well and then once again she started to unravel..Turns out she went back to her old doc and secretly got the Zoloft perscription again!!! Her judgement has been seriously impaired.
Now she is back in the hospital.
I believe based on what I have witnessed that Zoloft is incredibly dangerous.Caroline used to be a very bright, multi talented young lady with a promising future. She seems to have lost much of her intellect and ability to reason. Her perceptions and motor coordination are not right. She has lost almost all of her friends and has been living a very isolated life, has taken to wearing hoodies pulled down over her head and huge dark sunglasses even at night. Her behaviour has become increasing ly weird.
I don't know if whe will ever recover from the damage the Zoloft caused.
This is a tragedy, to see a gifted young girls life essentially ruined by a prescription drug.
I don't believe Caroline was ever truly depressed in the first place. Turned out she was anemic and had low thyroid. That would be enough to account for her listlissness.
I don't know what can be done about this legally. I am furious at a medical system that was so quick to write prescriptions for drugs with potentially devastating side effects that were never explained to the patient and then the patient was not followed up to make sure she was not having dangerous side effects. Caroline was on Zoloft for over two years;. I wonder how long it will take, if ever for her brain to recover and for the damage done to her lifve to be repaired.
I am posting this to warn others of the potential dangers of Zoloft. If the family had not noticed the connection between Zoloft and the crazy behaviour the doctors would probably never have figured it out and Caroline could have wound up being permanently institutionalized or living on the street.