Unstrung Harp Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 Has anyone experienced excessive bruising on sertraline? I was on it for years and never had that problem. My daughter's been on it for five weeks or so, and her legs are covered in small bruises, and she has a giant two or three-inch bruise on her thigh that she has no recollection of getting. I just thought to look it up, and apparently it sometimes happens with sertraline. Trying to figure out if it's worth reaching out to the psychiatric NP. I have never heard of this before, and don't have the emotional bandwidth to look for and read the studies that reference it that came up in my google search, so I'm wondering if this is a thing that anyone has dealt with and how serious it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HydroCat Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 (edited) This is interesting. A brief search brought up that SSRIs (Sertraline, among others) have an inhibiting effect on blood platelets and so they can make getting bruises “easier” or make bleeding more severe when injured. I didn't find in the explanation if they actually cause bruises on their own. This effect is more severe when taking NSAIDs together with SSRIs (most OTC pain/fever meds) so keep that in mind. Probably not very dangerous but worth talking to the doc. Edited June 27, 2019 by HydroCat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unstrung Harp Posted June 28, 2019 Author Share Posted June 28, 2019 3 hours ago, HydroCat said: This is interesting. A brief search brought up that SSRIs (Sertraline, among others) have an inhibiting effect on blood platelets and so they can make getting bruises “easier” or make bleeding more severe when injured. I didn't find in the explanation if they actually cause bruises on their own. This effect is more severe when taking NSAIDs together with SSRIs (most OTC pain/fever meds) so keep that in mind. Probably not very dangerous but worth talking to the doc. Yeah, I saw something like that. Never noted that as a possible side effect. I messaged the NP to let her know that may be happening, but hoping that doesn’t require a med change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notloki Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 SSRI affects things like clotting and making platelets not be as "sticky". This all increases bruising. This patient does need to see the doc and have a blood panel run to make sure it is the SSRI as bruising can be a symptom of many things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unstrung Harp Posted June 28, 2019 Author Share Posted June 28, 2019 16 minutes ago, notloki said: SSRI affects things like clotting and making platelets not be as "sticky". This all increases bruising. This patient does need to see the doc and have a blood panel run to make sure it is the SSRI as bruising can be a symptom of many things. thanks for the info, notloki. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfer girl Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 i used to get insane bruises when on effexor - even on low doses. My doc didn't think it was a side effect, but i always knew it was. Now i am on lexapro and don't get bruises - even with my frequent bumping into things in my haste to get from A to B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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