Side effects of Pristiq

I want to re-invite @ottawalisa, @irishgirl55, @lt74 to the conversation so they can discuss their usage of Pristiq.

Have you stopped the medication as of yet, @jordanstutz1?

@amandaburnett I did. My final dose was yesterday (6/20) at 9am EST. This morning I spoke with my PCP and my Psychiatrist and they said that, because I was only on it for three days at the starting dose, I should have no complications.

I have been on antidepressants since I was 11, I am now 21. Over 4 years ago, I was put on Pristiq. For some reason, my psych upped me from 50mg to 150mg plus 10mg aripiprazole in less than 6 months. I switched from that psych 6 months ago and got a new one. My new psych was trying to remove me from my state's medical marijuana program, so I ditched him and never got a new psych. I have been smoking since 14 and find it works better than any of the 5+ antidepressants I've been on. That being said, I ran out of pills and didn't even ration or split the dosage, going cold turkey from 150mg + aripiprazole. So for about 2 weeks, I've had no medicine, after being on antidepressants for essentially half my life. I have been very dizzy and tired, and it has been a struggle to feed myself. I have an increase in negative thoughts and feelings, and I am incredibly irritatable. I have no motivation. My vision is blurry and my headache is bad.
I wish I would have just said no to my old psych upping my medicine. I would see her once a month with no therapy, and every time I told her I was still sad all she would do was up the meds.
I should have rationed the pills appropriately as soon as I stopped seeing my last psych. However I didn't even know I wasn't gonna get a new one, it just kinda happened.

My message to anyone stopping any type of pills:
be smart, and do your research beforehand. I didn't care enough and now I'm suffering

Does anyone know how long I will have withdrawal effects? I figure for several months considering my medicinal history and dosage. I am unsure if I should get back on 50mg or something to make the withdrawal better, or what. I feel like I have already gotten over the peak of the withdrawal effects (off it for almost 2 weeks). I was on 150mg + aripiprazole for over 3 years.
thanks

also I had 2 blood tests months ago which showed I had liver damage (I dont drink), and a google search tells me that pristiq can cause that

Hello @baltii and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. It sounds like your symptoms are worsening and it seems time to seek medical help to ensure your health and overall safety in general and from withdrawals. Do you have a resource you know of that you can reach out to in order to get a new psychologist to review your symptoms and medication approach?

yes I do. part of me is afraid to go to someone else, but its okay because I plan to get off in the near future. I have waves of irritability and paranoia following my withdrawls, and feel more calm today

I am currently tapering off. I was on 100mg for about a 12 to 16 months. Compared to other antidepressants, I never quite felt settled on this one - I always still had some sort of anxiety. I started the tapering process 3 to 4 weeks ago, decreased by 25% once a week. I have officially been off since this past Sunday/monday (so today is day). My withdrawal symptoms have been pretty manageable I suppose but have intensified as my dose decreased. The heart racing thing is something I experience with anxiety and with the withdrawal however I have had a higher resting heart rate for months and never knew why - cause this could be the culprit.

Withdrawal symptoms are the typical dizzy, kind of vertigo feeling, along with muscle tension, trembling/tremors, diarrhea, headache, exhaustion, mood swings, increased anxiety/nervousness. I have had to intermittently take Lorazepam at night to settle my nerves cause I have felt sort of amped up and shakey but yet tired at the same time.

I came off because after 30 years of anxiety and panic attacks, I finally started to see a psychiatrist. She recommended that since it had been well over 10 years since I had ever tried to not be on meds, that my brain get a reset button. It sounded scary and even though I am going through withdrawal, I do truly think it will be for the best.

Hello everyone! I have suffered from anxiety and panic attacks since the age of 4. I was medicated at a young age with Paxil and wish that I had been pushed more towards diet/exercise and a therapist. I don't think I really have depression but can't say I've never felt it before. Between the age of 12/13 and now (34), I don't remember ever being off of a med besides maybe a year or 2 in my late teens or early 20s. I do not remember what I was like off of meds but ended up back on them so clearly they were needed. I never was recommended to see a psychiatrist either by my PCP. In the past year, I started seeing one and I really like her. I have been on Paxil, prozac, and zoloft and all of them were for years at a time. I also tried wellbutrin in the past couple years and hated it. I tried Buspar twice - once was by itself and again while on pristiq (pretty recent) - didn't like it the first time and the second time went better but still not great. After years of going from one med to the next at the max dose and still feeling off, my psychiatrist said my brain needed a reset.
I started the tapering process about 3 or 4 weeks ago from 100mg. We have done a decrease of 25mg once a week and now am off for the 3rd day. As the dose has decreased I have had more intense withdrawal symptoms. It seems that every time there was a decrease, about 2 days later I would start to feel some symptoms. The most annoying symptom is this nervous muscle tremor that seems to effect me mostly at night and sometimes when I wake up in the morning. Sometimes I can ignore it and still fall asleep but other times it's pretty severe and my whole body is involved, teeth chattering, almost like electric shocks. Has anyone else experienced this with pristiq? Something else to note is whenever I am extremely high anxiety and close to a panic attack or already had one, I do get a nervous tremble. I have been like that for as long as I can remember having panic attacks. I of course have the typical dizziness, headaches, diarrhea, irritable feeling, etc.

Looking for feedback and how long these withdrawal symptoms lasted for others.

Thank you in advance!

Dana

Hello @danalynn3318 and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. You have certainly had a long history and journey with medications. It seems reasonable that the nervous tremble you have had for some time would seem/feel exaggerated as you taper.

Also, you will notice that I did move your post into an existing discussion on tapering off Pristiq. I believe you've posted here once before so you may be familiar. I did find this older discussion from 2013 that I thought may be of interest as this member shared their experience with a combination Pristiq and Prozac combination.

- Pristiq Withdrawal:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/pristiq-withdrawal-2e17b4/
What was the reasoning/motivation for your therapist to recommend taking a medication break?

Because I was on a max dose of pristiq and was still having issues, we tried adding in Buspar but it didn't go well. Prior to pristiq I was on prozax or zoloft (don't remember which one) and also on the max dose having issues. Prior to that I was on the max dose of another SSRI. So because I had gone from one max dose of one med right to the max dose of another, after another (done by my PCP) - my psychiatrist thought I needed to reset my brain. It had been over 10 years since I had been off of anything and switched multiple times in those years. About 7 months ago is when I started seeing the psychiatrist so she doesn't know my baseline and honestly neither do I! It's been so long and life has changed alot so to better treat me, my psychiatrist wants a base line without any meds. At first I was terrified and was like hell no, but honestly I think it was a great decision. PCPs are not the best ones to care for this type of thing and wish I had a psychiatrist years ago.