Gluten in my prescription not letting me get better?

[Mallory Lee]

Has anyone had a long run of not getting better after a completely gluten free diet and then realized it was because of the small amount of gluten in your prescription?

 

I had been taking sertraline (anti-depressant and generic of zoloft) for about 6 months before being diagnosed with celiac disease. I continued to take my medication until someone brought to my attention that I needed to check my prescriptions for gluten too! Immediately I investigated and learned that my prescription did in deed have gluten in it.  After days of trying to get pharmacists to cooperate with helping me find a gluten free version I ended up being told by a compound pharmacy that Greenstone was a gluten free sertraline so I changed prescriptions right away  and got on the new medication. Still not feeling well I decided to call that new manufacture and found out that my pharmacist may have no been correct about her findings. They were told me that there was a "questionable" ingredient in their product. Has anyone else had a problem like mine? I am still feeling bad everyday and wonder if it is still the little amount of gluten I could possibly be getting in my medicine. I am going to the doctor tomorrow to talk to her about helping me get yet ANOTHER new prescription because I learned that Lupin carries a gluten free version. I really hope this is my problem of why I am not feeling better since I can fix it and not something else! I am so tired of feeling bad!

[kareng]

There was a study that looked at many medications and found only a handful actually contained gluten.  I will see if I can find it.  

 

How  long have you been gluten-free? It can takes months or years to get better.  another to to watch is that, as your GI tract heals, many medications that are absorbed in the small intestine, are now absorbed better.  You might need a smaller dose than pre Celiac diagnosis.

 

also, pharmacists have no clue what has gluten or not.  Most are just making it up.  You need to find out what brand they will give you and call or look up the med before buying the drugs.  Just because a manufacturer will not say " gluten free" does not mean the med is not gluten-free.  It just means they don't test for gluten.