Side effects of Pristiq

My life was so effected by this drug!

My psychiatrist started me on this in 2012 and increased dose to 200mg. GP refuses to change but increased up to 300mg!!! Blindly trusted docs and tapered down to 250mg early this year. Took only 200mg yesterday and today and symptoms of withdrawal kicking in.
I'm at risk of losing my job because I can't focus or perform easy tasks. My vision is blurry. Zero libido. No motivation. Only just realised a lot of what I thought was my mental state may be side effects. Very upset at psychiatrist and GP.

I weaned myself off Pristiq over 2 months. I have been off the drug for 3-4 weeks and still have 5-10 hot flashes every day, terrible nausea and constant low grade headache. This is the most awful drug I have ever taken and should be taken off the market! If you are thinking of starting Pristiq,DON'T. Ask your doctor for something else.

I am working on it now. My RX for several years was 50mg daily. My Dr. thought take one 50mg every other day for 10 days. Not a good recommendation! I had a lot of symptoms, was thankful that I had read up on it or would have thought myself a hypochondriac. After I researched it and found out 25mg are available to start down the taper and informed him, He had me take the 25mg every day for a week then start at 25mg every other day. I have found my neck tightens up and I ache all over but if I force myself to exercise at least 30 minutes I can work my way through the strange symptoms. I have a stressful job and when I get in the zone which I think causes my own neurotransmitters to kick in I feel better. My spouse has had to listen to me whine a bit as the brain zap (electrical type feelings and the headaches are whineable) I think it is a good medication but much harder to go off than zoloft or lexapro. Oh and I had some insomnia but that has passed shortly. I would have been frightened if I hadnt read a bunch of these forums. I am going off of it because I think it is causing some issues with my salivary glands under the jaw swelling and hurting off and on due to the decrease in the production of saliva. Be good to yourself during this time. Lots of sunshine and exercise and water if at all possible.

@solveig, @netty, I am curious how you both are doing with withdrawing from Pristiq. I am 70, fully retired, and otherwise in good health although very over weight. I was on 50 mg Pristiq for probably 14 years now. It was necessary when I started, I suffered form anxiety and depression along with menopause, and it saw me through some very difficult times. For several reasons, my doctor and I feel that it is time to stop, so about 3 months ago he prescribed the 25mg dose with instructions to take it for aboutt 21/2 weeks, then take it every other day for about same amount of time, then stop. He admitted that he was not familiar with this particular SNRI, so we've been flying by the seat of our pants. I had no major problems taking the 25 mg, but taking it every other day was horrible- I felt like a pingpong ball -experiencing "brain zaps" and dizziness, appetite swings, body aches and mental lassitude, a bit better the next day , then even worse the following. In frustration, I decided to cut the 25 mg in half and take it dally for about 3 weeks. I then cut the pills in 1/4 for another week with few side affects (I know I wasn't getting even doses, but I wanted wean myself off slowly.) That helped, so 10 days ago I stopped completely. No brain zaps, but spells of vertigo, terrible memory fog, body aches, insomnia. There are days when I think I am moving past this, but then I'll have a terrible day with all the symptoms. My son & daughter-in-law, both mental health professionals, say there is very little research about going off these types of SNRI's and it could take 1 -2 months to "re-wire" my brain. I hope there is light at the end of the tunnel. i get discouraged and sometimes wonder if I should resume at 25 mg to stop this mental and physical withdrawal. Hope things are improving for you

Thank you for checking back with me. I am having symptoms but question whether they may be from my not typical depression and anxiety rather than discontinuation of the Pristiq. I have only 3 pills left of the 25mg every other day. I have tension in the muscles you use to chew, it radiates in to a headache and ear pain. I have been going to a very sympathetic chiropractor. She is working on the muscles. The weird thing about the pain is that it moves from side to side. Ibuprofen or tylenol take it away enough to ignore it. It was miserable enough that my regular Dr. had me get a CT of the neck a soft tissue Ct . He felt like it was my lymph nodes causing trouble. Nothing bad showed . I do not like to tell him much about the odd ball symptoms as unless you have been there and experienced these strange things like the zaps and vertigo and aching it sounds like your nuts! I am determined to fight the depression with sunshine exercise nutrition chiropractic and my daughter highly recommended a cortisol manager over the counter supplement , meditation and mindful deep breathing. I am going to give it another month for sure to see if I can do it. I have a very stressful job that I love and I have been able to ignore the symptoms when really busy.. I am sleeping ok sometimes have to take the ibuprofen. Oh the other thing that really helps is a muscle relaxer Skelaxin . Hang in there everyone. If I am still having to fight to feel good every day I may consider another SSRI but also liked the focus the SNRI part of pristiq had.

Going to try it. Thanks for posting

Thank you @netty and @nonnivee ! I'm mid 40s and have been on antidepressants (first Zoloft for 8 years, now Pristiq for past 8) for years and I'm really REALLY nervous to get off of them, yet know I want to give it a try. I take 100 mg daily. When I began, back in the early 2000s I had a ton of anxiety and depression (a lot due to alcohol misuse, which I'm now 5+ years sober from) and want to give a non meds world a go :). but again -- super scared to try due to side effects and all discussed.

My psychiatrist insists that Pristiq should take no more than 2 weeks to taper off of and that "all" his other patients "do fine" and that the longer taper stories are a myth etc. And I want to trust that yet don't... (he's been cavalier in the past about other things). Has anyone heard of this short taper?

I have quit many things in my life (alcohol, cigarettes, sugar... to name a few) yet THIS is the one that has me stopped in my tracks.

Thoughts appreciated. thanks! 🙂

My Dr. who I actually work with and respect on other areas is unknowing in this area. I went to a pharmacist that I trust and he told me that 2 weeks was way to short of a time. I told my Dr. the same and told him about the 25mg. I would say one thing if you are doing well and not having problems just to be drug free is not a good reason to get off an antidepressant. I only did because of the dry mouth issue that caused me problems. It is ok to take medications that you need. I do not profess to know what you should do. But if you are doing great with no side effects you may be just on the right med for this stage of your life. Why mess with it?

Thanks for your reply 🙂 As for why I want to try to get off meds -- in addition to my own desire to figure out if I truly do need them or if the depression/anxiety were alcohol related...

my Dr. has said that he would like me to do so, because certain meds hit a point where they stop working due to hitting a tolerance level and he wants to do a hard reset of my body with regards to being on psychotropic meds and that then if/when I hit a depressive cycle (which he assumes I will) and ultimately would need them again, they will have a renewed ability to work... I know -- sounds crazy, right? Even typing it makes me question the sanity!

Basically he wants me to get off them; give my body a break, then start me back on something new.

Has anyone been through something as crazy sounding as this?