Experiences with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and SSRIs

I was prescribed Sertraline (Zoloft) due to anxiety and CFS. After 6 weeks, we saw no improvement and one of the Doctors seemed all to happy to stop the drug. If anything, this was a little too soon, but I am now trying Fluoxetine (Prozac). I will finish my first week on Sunday 5th February 2012. Tommorow (Saturday) will mark my first week off Sertraline. Whilst I am happy to be making progress, the first week off Sertraline has not been pleasant.

Sertraline has side effects both going on, and coming off the drug. This week I have been having terrible mood swings, and have felt very dizzy at times.

In writing this, I would not like to discourage anyone from trying Sertraline, or any other SSRI. The simple fact is that everyone is different, and no one drug will fit everyone. It's all about having patience and will power, to pull through the toughest of times.

I have, at the moment, no true opinion on SSRI's for CFS, it will take some time to tell whether it's worth it or not.

If you are 'offered' an SSRI by your doctor, I'd like to encourage you to accept it. Whilst it's not perfect, it's a step in the right direction.

Best of luck, Rob

I've had CFS since the Christmas-New Year holiday of 1989-1990 and I have tried everything that my insurance would pay for (and a few things the wouldn't -- like Cat's Claw and other exotic supplements).

. Some things worked for a while, some didn't work, and some made me worse. But what can you do when the pain, the misery, the sheer awfulness of this syndrome leaves you curled up on the bed whimpering and crying?

.Some things work for some people for a while some times. Something that helped at the very first (two Ibuprofin) became actually laughable later; then came Ultram, a drug of joy because it actually made the pain go away (for me); then came hydrocodone . . . all these, and with various SSRIs in varying quantities -- nothing helped much and not for long.

Somewhere around 2010 (after twenty years) I seemed to reach a plateau. I'm still in the woods of CFS but much of the time I can see the light through the trees. I am so grateful for this.

My suggestion (and this is MY stuff based on MY experiences) would be to try what there is, read up on it, keep a journal about it, and try it for ninety days and make a decision -- but feel free to stop it sooner than that if it is not improving your quality of life.

.CFS is such a horrible thing, and I feel so badly for anyone who suffers with it (including myself) -- but what can you do but (hopefully) find a doctor who understands that it is all too real, educate yourself (and others), and smile sweetly when everyone tells you, ". . . But you look so good!". . . ?

I was prescribed Effexor XR. It reduced some of the stressful feelings, but it did NOT do anything at all for the pain or fatigue. In fact, it caused a weight gain of about 25 pounds within a year, as well as severe constipation. It was highly addictive, and I had to keep increasing the dose to get the same minimal effect until I was at almost the highest prescribed dose, all within a year. I had to open the capsule and reduce my daily dose grain by grain to wean myself off of it. AVOID antidepressants if you can, although your doctor may try to push them on you...