Hi mattyg18;
I’m sorry to hear of your zoloft experience. While I can’t speak to SSNHL with zoloft, I can tell you that when I went through a bout of depression last summer, my psychologist, who is a bilateral hearing aid user, strongly cautioned me NOT to use antidepressants unless they were absolutely necessary. Her reason? From her reading and experience, many, if not all antidepressants are ototoxic. The SSRI class, to which zoloft belongs, is particularly notorious for this. When I spoke with my family physician about this, he had no idea! I’ve since changed to a new family physician, and she, too, had no idea that many antidepressants are ototoxic. As a former medical professional, I think this is an area in which medical professionals need a lot more training!!! From my experience, most medical professionals don’t even consider the possibility of ototoxicity when prescribing medications. In my opinion, some medical professionals don’t take the long-term impact of the medications they prescribe into account. Case-in-point: I had an ear infection last summer and my GP wanted to give me gentamycin, which is known to be very, VERY ototoxic. I said no and educated my then-doctor on my rationale for doing so.
Anyway, I am really sorry you are going through this. I’m sure it’s unnerving to go to bed hearing as you normally do and wake up the next day not hearing as much. I hope that the prednisone continues to work for you and that your hearing returns to its former state. (That said, DON’T stop the prednisone suddenly on your own!!! Even if your hearing returns, follow the ENT’s directions to a T. It needs to be tapered properly to prevent untoward side effects.) Good luck, and keep us posted!