I Have Been Taking 200 Mg Trazodone At Night For

Posted on Fri, 18 Oct 2019

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Fri, 18 Oct 2019 Answered on

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Question : I have been taking 200 mg trazodone at night for five years to help with sleep/ anxiety. It saved my life in many ways but in the last few weeks I have been having more bad nights than normal. I also have some mild ocd - going to bathroom a lot at night and hair pulling on and off. It’s not that bad . The trazodone fixed these things for the first year but They are back. I feel it no longer works as well. I saw a new doctor a few weeks ago and she wants me to start Zoloft . I am scared to take these two medicines together- I keep reading about serotonin syndrome. I also have a terrible history with SSRIs - right before trazodone I tried Paxil and Prozac and they made me more anxious and worse insomnia so I immediately quit them. I was wondering your thoughts? Ps: I take clonazpem on bad nights - used to be once a week and lately it’s every other day. I don’t want to need that end.

Answered by Dr. Seikhoo Bishnoi (27 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
There is no significant risk of Serotonin syndrome.

Detailed Answer:
Hello thanks for using ask a doctor service

Trazodone is a safe drug and the drug helps in sleep. Zoloft is a SSRI drug and is one of safest SSRI drugs. If we compare with Paxil or Fluoxetine then the drug is relatively well tolerated and very safe.

Now if we consider serotonin syndrome then if you are not on very high doses then there is no significant risk. You can take even 200 mg Trazodone with Zoloft. No need to get worried.

Thanks

Please let me know if you have more doubts.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vaishalee Punj