Sertraline
- Class: SSRI
- Used for: depression
- Say it: SER-truh-leen
- Forms: tablet, oral liquid
SERTRALINE puts the mood back on a SERENE LINE — slowly, over weeks, not days.
Blocking serotonin reuptake leaves more in the synapse, but the mood lifts only after four to six weeks. Promising a quick line is how patients get abandoned in week two.
Blocking reuptake leaves serotonin in the gap. The level rises within days, but mood takes four to six weeks — the receptors have to adapt, and that lag is the hardest part to explain to patients.
The mechanism comic
One of five sample comics. The app has one for each of the 100 drugs.
Side effects
Common: nausea, diarrhea, sexual dysfunction, insomnia
Serious: serotonin syndrome, suicidal thoughts in young people
Typical dose
50 mg once daily, up to 200 mg
Start at 25 mg if the patient is anxious. Judge the effect at 4–6 weeks, not sooner.
Check yourself
A patient feels no better ten days after starting sertraline. What is the right advice?
- Continue — a mood response typically takes four to six weeks
- Stop it; the drug has clearly failed
- Double the dose straight away
- Add a second antidepressant now
Show answer
A. Continue — a mood response typically takes four to six weeks
Serotonin levels rise almost immediately, yet the clinical effect does not — that gap is intrinsic to the class. Stopping at ten days is the commonest way a drug that would have worked gets abandoned.
See it, don't memorize it
The app has the mechanism comic and a patient case for Sertraline – plus the name link, the class mnemonic, pronunciation you can hear, and a self-check, for the top 100 drugs. One purchase, no subscription, no account.