Zoloft stuck in esophagus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happened to me last night on my way home, never swallow anything without water and I took a half of a 50 mg Sertraline. It burned terribly and a I kept drinking water but my mouth and throat was building up saliva and I was getting sick to my stomach. When I got home I drank a little bit of milk which seemed to calm it a bit but today I can barely swallow and the entire right side of my throat into my ear just throbs. It feels like I have a huge ulcer.

Call your doctor's office and ask to speak to the nurse. Or call your health insurance - mine has a hotline where I can speak to a nurse, and the nurse can apparently contact a doctor on call.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happened to me last night on my way home, never swallow anything without water and I took a half of a 50 mg Sertraline. It burned terribly and a I kept drinking water but my mouth and throat was building up saliva and I was getting sick to my stomach. When I got home I drank a little bit of milk which seemed to calm it a bit but today I can barely swallow and the entire right side of my throat into my ear just throbs. It feels like I have a huge ulcer.

Call your doctor's office and ask to speak to the nurse. Or call your health insurance - mine has a hotline where I can speak to a nurse, and the nurse can apparently contact a doctor on call.

do call doctor. It is possible that you do have a huge ulcer and there's a drug, Carafate, that can coat and protect it while it heals. Also, if bad enough, you might have a stricture but only time (and a doctor) will tell.

[Anonymous]

I will never swallow Zoloft without water again. Swallowed it before bed and woke up an hour later so I had to puke , the feeling didn’t go away though so I took two Tums and drank water and I was able to fall asleep afterwards. It’s morning now and the burning is gone thank goodness

[Anonymous]

Used to happen to me with Prozac (don't take anymore), and I didn't dry swallow, maybe drank less than I should have but not always. Worst godawful feeling in the world.

[Anonymous]

I think I may have esophagitis. I swallowed a pantoprazole pill earlier about 1pm and I can still feel it. I’ve tried water after water, a little manuka honey I have. Also had a small smoothie I already had. A bit of bread. Nothing is helping. My throat hurts. My stomach feels full from all the water I’ve been drinking. Can anyone suggest what I can do?

[Anonymous]

If all that stuff went down, it's not in your esophagus, which is good. Wait it out but also, I think you should keep taking the PPI.

[Anonymous]

Hope this helps someone, as I came here with the same experience as the OP:

Solution: Always take a bite of food, take the Zoloft pill, take another bite of something and drink water.

If you forget or the pill gets stuck/dissolves in your esophagus, you will feel awful for about 30-60 minutes. Take deep breaths, calm the gag reflex if you can. Lie down to relax your esophagus so it can push the pill to your stomach. Drinking water helps but will also dissolve the pill.
Eat a bit of dairy or starch to soothe your burned esophagus.

Why: The carrier in Zoloft pills is hydrochloride, which becomes hydrochloric acid when dissolved (a strong acid, same as what's in your stomach). That is why Zoloft burns your esophagus when it gets stuck and dissolves there. The pill tends to get stuck in the sphincter muscle at the top of your esophagus if you haven't "exercised" the muscle by swallowing food first. Take another bite after the pill to keep esophageal peristalsis going (the automatic pushing of food down to your stomach). The gag reflex makes you nauseous, etc, trying to eject the stuck pill. I have successfully calmed myself to avoid vomiting, which would bring more HCl acid into the burned area, by taking slow breaths and literally praying for help. It's doable. Water further dissolves the acid, so something basic like starch (rice) or dairy (milk, ice cream) will neutralize the acid and soothe the ulcerated esophagus. Zoloft doses need to be titrated up to a full pill, so at first you have to take a cut pill with the HCl exposed on the cut side. It is even more important to take Zoloft with food at those times.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Coca Cola. Works every time.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for this great explanation of what’s happening. I’m quite perturbed after calling my doctor’s office and he dismissed this burning sensation as a sore throat and it’s a coincidence that I just started the medication. I’m going to screenshot this to him so maybe he won’t be so quick to dismiss next time...even though I did want him up in the middle of the night...

[Anonymous]

Wow, how do you people manage to get through day to day life?

[Anonymous]

I had this happen for the first time yesterday! Water wasn't working. I finally ate a bunch of crackers and drank a ton of water and it dislodged it. It was burning so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hope this helps someone, as I came here with the same experience as the OP:

Solution: Always take a bite of food, take the Zoloft pill, take another bite of something and drink water.

If you forget or the pill gets stuck/dissolves in your esophagus, you will feel awful for about 30-60 minutes. Take deep breaths, calm the gag reflex if you can. Lie down to relax your esophagus so it can push the pill to your stomach. Drinking water helps but will also dissolve the pill.
Eat a bit of dairy or starch to soothe your burned esophagus.

Why: The carrier in Zoloft pills is hydrochloride, which becomes hydrochloric acid when dissolved (a strong acid, same as what's in your stomach). That is why Zoloft burns your esophagus when it gets stuck and dissolves there. The pill tends to get stuck in the sphincter muscle at the top of your esophagus if you haven't "exercised" the muscle by swallowing food first. Take another bite after the pill to keep esophageal peristalsis going (the automatic pushing of food down to your stomach). The gag reflex makes you nauseous, etc, trying to eject the stuck pill. I have successfully calmed myself to avoid vomiting, which would bring more HCl acid into the burned area, by taking slow breaths and literally praying for help. It's doable. Water further dissolves the acid, so something basic like starch (rice) or dairy (milk, ice cream) will neutralize the acid and soothe the ulcerated esophagus. Zoloft doses need to be titrated up to a full pill, so at first you have to take a cut pill with the HCl exposed on the cut side. It is even more important to take Zoloft with food at those times.

Good luck!

Thank you, PP! This just happened last night to DD, who got into the habit of dry-swallowing her Zoloft, and I was worried. She seemed to be in a lot of pain, and this (especially the bit on the caustic ingredient) was super helpful to I understand why it would cause more than a few minutes of discomfort. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Oh, goodness this is happening to me right now! It hurts so bad and nothing is working! It's 0130 and I've been awake ask hour😫 I've taken water, Tums, milk? Don't even feel like I can eat. I dry swallowed my Zoloft in bed a few hours ago and woke up like this! Never again!

[Anonymous]

If the feeling continues, you should go to the doctor/hospital. My mom burned a hole in her esophagus this way - after doctors told her it was impossible to get a pill stuck there. So - worth following up on if it doesn't resolve.

[Anonymous]

I never dry swallow anymore as I got pill esophagitis from dry swallowing an advil. Felt it get stuck and then later could actually feel food get stuck at the same part of my esophagus when I would swallow. The food would go down, just pause there and felt like it was squeezing. Was seen in the ED and they had me swallow on imaging and saw the same thing.

I got put in a puree diet for a few days and it resolved. Thankfully