Phenobarbitol and Zoloft Together

Written by Dr. Leland Heller

QUESTION:

Two years ago my wife gave birth to our 4th child. Her baby blues got worse and eventually she became severely depressed and bipolar. Nine months later she got psychiatric help and was Prescribed Zoloft. It took months for the drug to help, but it finally did and she remains on 150mgs per day. About a year after the child was born she took all the children and left me. Our marriage was very strained. Her behavior was all over the charts, drastically abnormal, as if she died to her old self and reemerged into a new being.

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I have put an enormous amount searching as to what has gone wrong and the answer continually resolves to diagnose my wife as borderline. I don't think she thinks she is, but intimate details of her life are not shared with me anymore, claiming she cant trust me with this information. I have witnessed very bizarre behavior while she is supposed to be "stable". It got so crazy, I felt I had to contact her doctor because I felt she was paranoid and delusional...it was harming our other kids. There is also a history of incest involving a cousin that took place for 4 years starting at age 8.Thats just a very brief background. I am concerned because of the radical changes she has taken, and her lack of concern for what it is doing to our family. She is so far from the person I used to know.

Additionally, my wife was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was 12. She takes 100mg of Phenobarbitol every day. I am wondering if there could be any relationship to Epilepsy, Phenobarbitol, and her current use of Zoloft. I have read that the brain activity of borderlines resembles that of an epileptic. Could the epilepsy be a result of psychological stress? Could this have lead to the depression and the eventual personality breakdown? Could the Zoloft be more harmful than good? Is there anything to worry about when Phenobarbitol and Zoloft are mixed together?

DR. HELLER'S ANSWER:

Clearly something is wrong. This is way beyond post partum depression - which sometimes is due to low thyroid.

The BPD is likely a form of epilepsy, and phenobarbital doesn't help it.

Stress makes everything worse, including the BPD. She could have had a milder form of the BPD, which because severe with chronic dysphoria after the 4th child - including the possibility of an incest crisis.

I'm not aware of any reason phenobarbital and Zoloft can't be used together, and it's unlikely the Zoloft caused any of the problems with one exception - it could have triggered a mania episode and the true diagnoses may be bipolar.

She needs a thorough evaluation by a knowledgeable person in this field!

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