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Zoloft

Sertraline · also sold as Zoloft / Lustral

A widely used SSRI for depression and anxiety.

Generic name
Sertraline
Brand names
Zoloft / Lustral
Route
Oral
Marketed by
Viatris
First FDA approval
30 Dec 1991

Where Sertraline is approved

All regulators →

Of the three regulators tracked here, the first to approve Sertraline was the US, on 30 Dec 1991.

USUnited States (FDA)
30 Dec 1991
Zoloft
NDA019839 on Drugs@FDA
First original NDA/BLA approval
EUEuropean Union (EMA)
No centralised EU authorisation (it may be authorised nationally)
First centralised authorisation
CACanada (Health Canada)
No new-drug Notice of Compliance since 1994
First new-drug NOC

From the regulators' own registers: FDA Drugs@FDA, the EMA medicines list and Health Canada's Notice of Compliance database. Dates are the first listed approval of a product containing only this substance; combination products and nationally authorised EU medicines are not counted.

What health systems spend on Sertraline

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ENNHS England
£48.4m
26,188,839 items dispensed, Aug 2025 to Jul 2026
-5% on the previous 12 months
Net ingredient cost, community prescriptions
USUS Medicaid
$106.7m
9,023,563 prescriptions in 2025 · Sertraline Hydrochloride, sertraline HCl, Sertraline hydrochloride
+2% on 2024
Amount Medicaid reimbursed, before rebates

From NHSBSA Prescription Cost Analysis (Open Government Licence v3.0) and CMS State Drug Utilization Data. Both are gross amounts: neither system publishes its discounts or rebates per drug. Products combining several substances are not counted here.

How Sertraline works

All drug targets →
  • Serotonin transporter inhibitor Inhibitor
    Target: SLC6A4 solute carrier family 6 member 4
    ✓ In ChEMBL and the Guide to Pharmacology
Diseases it has been tested for in clinical trials, by furthest phase
  • Cryptococcal meningitisPhase 3
  • Angina unstablePhase 3
  • AutismPhase 3
  • Bipolar disorderPhase 3
  • Burning mouth syndromePhase 3
  • Coronary artery disorderPhase 3
  • Dysthymic disorderPhase 3
  • EpilepsyPhase 3
  • Generalized anxiety disorderPhase 3
  • InsomniaPhase 3
44 diseases in all

Mechanisms and diseases from ChEMBL via the Open Targets Platform (release 26.09), ChEMBL record CHEMBL809, CC BY-SA 3.0. Targets checked against the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY (2026.3), ligand 4798, CC BY-SA 4.0. Trial phases are not approvals: approved uses are shown from the regulators' own records where we hold them.

Patient leaflets for Sertraline

The package leaflet is the official guide for patients that comes with every medicine. These links go to the regulators that publish it.

Leaflets differ between brands and countries; always read the one that comes with your own medicine. This is regulatory information, not medical advice.

Reference identifiers for Sertraline

ATC code
N06AB06
ChEMBL
CHEMBL809
DrugBank
DB01104
PubChem CID
68617
CAS number
79617-96-2
FDA UNII
QUC7NX6WMB
Wikidata
Q407617
Wikipedia
Sertraline

Codes that identify this medicine in other databases, from Wikidata (CC0), matched by its ChEMBL ID. The ATC code is the WHO classification of what the medicine is used for.

What Zoloft is used for

ZOLOFT is indicated for the treatment of the following [See Clinical Studies (14) ] : • Major depressive disorder (MDD) • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) • Panic disorder (PD) • Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) • Social anxiety disorder (SAD) • Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) ZOLOFT is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) indicated for the treatment of ( 1 ): • Major depressive disorder (MDD) • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) • Panic disorder (PD) • Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) • Social anxiety disorder (SAD) • Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)

How it works

12.1 Mechanism of Action Sertraline potentiates serotonergic activity in the central nervous system through inhibition of neuronal reuptake of serotonin (5-HT).

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How this page is built

The facts on this page are pulled directly from official U.S. FDA datasets — they are not written from memory. Each field below names the dataset it came from, so you can check it yourself.

Plain-English summaries and drug-class explainers are written and reviewed by Sreepriya Prasannan (MSc Digital Transformation of Life Sciences (Innopharma Education / Griffith College); MSc & BSc Botany). Data is retrieved automatically from the sources above and cross-checked with AI-assisted verification (Anthropic's Claude) — brand and generic names are matched against the exact FDA product record so that a combination product or a different formulation cannot be mistaken for the drug on this page. An editor reviews the result before publication. We describe this in full in our editorial standards and corrections policy. The FDA data on this page was last retrieved on 4 Oct 2026. How every register is built: methodology · fixes we have made: corrections log.

Please verify before you rely on this. This page is general information for life-science and pharmaceutical professionals. It is not medical advice, and it has not been reviewed by a clinician — our editorial team holds life-science qualifications, not clinical ones. It is not exhaustive and may not reflect the most recent label change. Always check the official prescribing information (US Prescribing Information or EU SmPC) and speak to your doctor or pharmacist before acting on anything here. Drugs in the same class are not automatically interchangeable, and approvals, brand names and indications differ between the US, the EU/Ireland (EMA/HPRA) and other regions. Spotted an error? Tell us — we correct promptly and log it.