Does a body's tolerance to Zoloft disappear?

January 23, 2014 7:18 AM

Zoloft worked great until it stopped working. I'd like to try it again, but does tolerance remain?

I have chronic depression. I've taken a few different meds in my life to varying effect. Several years ago I started Zoloft and it worked very very well for me, but it stopped working after about a year. My psychiatrist at the time thought I'd built up a tolerance to it and switched me to something different. After a few years of not taking anything (other than Welbutrin for six months during nursing school) things are bad again and I'd like to try Zoloft again. I can't get in to see the state-funded psychiatrist until late next month, and I'd like to see my GP to prescribe something now. Will the tolerance I built up remain or has it disappeared after being off it for several years?

posted by waraw to Health & Fitness (5 answers total)

the answer is: it depends. it depends on you and your body chemistry. my psych told me that if i re-started a drug that had pooped out on me prior, and it worked again, it may poop out faster than it did last time. or it may not work at all. nothing to be lost by trying, right?
posted by misanthropicsarah at 7:38 AM on January 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yes, this is something that occurs frequently enough, but unfortunately there is no way to know in advance other than giving it a shot.
posted by hobo gitano de queretaro at 9:33 AM on January 23, 2014

IA that it depends. I would go ahead and get back on it at the minimal effective dose that's appropriate, then increase until you feel like it's working. If that never happens and you're getting at a dose higher than what you feel comfortable with, try switching to another SSRI--if one worked for you, it's possible another will and you won't have built up a tolerance to it. Was the subsequent drug wellbutrin (sorry it's a little unclear to me)? If it didn't work for you it's different enough from zoloft that it doesn't mean other SSRIs won't work. Best of luck!
posted by hejrat at 11:53 AM on January 23, 2014

Anecdata time!

I had absolutely wonderful results with Zoloft the first time, but they wore off just like yours. Tried other things for a few years with mixed results.

Tried Zoloft again, and results were good, although not quite as good as the first time, then they wore off again.

So, I would say it's not impossible.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:02 PM on January 23, 2014

Did you recently start a new prescription of a generic made by a different facility? I found out accidentally from my pharmacy that there are at least 3 people who request one generic of Zoloft over another. That generic Zoloft results are different from name-brand and from other generic Zolofts fits with information I had concluded years ago myself.
posted by RoadScholar at 3:06 PM on January 24, 2014