Epilepsy and Zoloft

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adsgrl

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I just found out the cause for my husband's death 3 months ago. He has had epilesy for the past 13 years. He died as a result of a seizure that was brought on from an accidental overdose of zoloft. Should a person with epilespy even be prescribed zoloft. I am in shock over this finding. They first thought he died from a heart attack. I would never have guessed he would of died from a siezure from an accidential overdose. I do not know how he managed to take to much. He was on about 20 different pills everyday so I believe he may have just mixed up taking them. He DID
NOT do this on purpose he was driving to work on the highway when this happened and ended up crashing into a light pole. Sorry a little long but main question is should he even have been given this medicine? And would this be the fault of his doctor?

Thank you for your help.
 
Welcome adsgrl

I"m sorry to hear about your husband. A friend was telling me this morn how anti-depressants seem to provoke seizure though I don't know if she mentioned anything about them interacting with anti-epileptic drugs. This thread might help Antidepressants and Seizure Threshold

Something else that might help is if you use the "search" option at the top of the page. Try searching for "zoloft" or "antidepressant" and see if you get any more threads.

Also, I moved your post to the foyer so that everyone can give the official CWE welcome.
 
Im so sorry for your loss. I dont have any great information as to whom is to blame, but I just wanted to let you know were here for you if you ever need to talk!

Welcome to CWE!
 
Hi adsgrl --

I went ahead and moved your post to the "The Kitchen" forum so everyone can see it.

First off, I am so very sorry for your husband's death, and for the circumstances. I hope we can provide some help to you.

May I ask how it was determined that he had a seizure at the time of his death? A Zoloft overdose can cause a ton of side effects, including ones involving the central nervous system. It can cause dizziness, loss of consciousness/fainting, intense migraine, shaking, twitching, loss of coordination -- and that's whether you have a pre-existing seizures disorder or not. Zoloft isn't necessarily contradindicated for people with seizure disorders though. Doctors who do prescribe it for their patients with epilepsy are supposed to do so with caution, but there are no other explicit restrictions. There are some CWE members who do take Zoloft, so they may chime in here with their experiences and opinions. (You can also search the site for references to "Zoloft" using the search tab at the top).

Zoloft also is listed for a wide variety of drug interactions, including 194 considered to be "major". Do you know if any of his other medications were on that list? A Zoloft overdose may have also have had an effect on those meds, in addition to potentially exacerbating a seizure.

Best,
Nakamova
 
The corner explained that they came to thier finding from the tox screen which showed too much zoloft in his system and an eye witness account from the driver behind him who saw him "shaking" right before the accident. His death is listed accident due to siezure from overdose of zoloft. He told me it was the seizure that actually killed him. I do not know more then that right now. I checked all of his other meds with the zolflot drug interactions and he was not taking anything else that would contredict with it. I am just at such a loss now and looking for some answers. Our kids beleive he passed from the intinal finding that they thought it was a heart attack and before they find out that this is really how he passed i want to have some good explantion for them. They are 19 and 17. They are listed on his life insurance, which may or may not pay the benefits now. From what I have read they may not pay because they can say it was his fault for over taking his meds. If this happens the kids will find out sooner then I want them to. They were both very very close to thier dad and he was an amazing dad to them. It is going to be so much harder for them to find out the actual way he passed so I hope I can have some better info for them as to why this happened.
Thank you for all your help.
 
adsgrl said:
Sorry a little long but main question is should he even have been given this medicine? And would this be the fault of his doctor?
Click to expand...

Adsgrl,

First of all, I am so sorry to hear of your loss. How difficult it must be for you and your children.

I suffer from epilepsy and depression, so I take Keppra + Topamax and 200 mgs. of Zoloft a day along with it (with other meds for other problems). Many people who suffer with epilepsy, also suffer from depression, therefore are treated with anti-depressants, so IMO, I don't think the doctor is at fault. Was your husband showing symptoms of depression at that time? What seizure medication was he taking?

Here is a website that shows the treatments for seizures/depression:
http://professionals.epilepsy.com/page/drugs_antidepress.html
 
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