Posted by in_denial on December 26, 2012, at 19:13:36
In reply to Effexor to Pristiq switch, posted by in_denial on December 22, 2012, at 5:15:58
> Hello, Its been a few years since posting here.
>
> During the past 12 or so years, I've been diagnosed with Depression, add (inattentive type) and social anxiety. Im currently on generic effexor xr 150, generic klonopin 1mg up to twice per day and adderral 15mg up to twice a day. I've been on this cocktail for about 7 years with very few changes. I went up on the effexor in the past but always went back down to 150mg because of jittery feelings on higher doses. I visited my primary doc today and explained that I have little emotion anymore. I look forward to nothing and get little enjoyment out of life and have been feeling very depressed lately. He asked if i was suicidal. I said no but i constantly feel like a robot and that my life is pointless.
>
> I asked about increasing Effexor dose or possibly supplementing something else in the mix. He was ready to kick up Effexor to 300mg then asked if I've heard about Pristiq. I did not. He said he had a lot of patients that pooped out on Effexor, successfully transfer with little or no side effect (compared to Effexor). He said he would prescribe Prestiq 100mg for a month to see how I respond. He said its like 300mg of Effexor. I told him I got nasty withdrawals when running out or trying to stop Effexor in the past (brain zaps, feelings of going insane, sweating, etc.). He said not to worry, because they are in the same family and I should not experience any of this.
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> When I got home, I researched immediately. First, I see most people would go from 150 mg Effexor to 50mg Pristiq to start. I already purchased the 100mg Pristiq pills. Since they are tabs, I thought I could just split the pills (if 100mg is too much too fast). Several posts on other websites explicitly warn against splitting these tabs because of their slow release properties. Most of the posts on this website concerning Effexor to Pristiq appear to be several years old, so I was hoping to get some up-to-date info. Please forgive me if there are current discussions with same exact info (I tried to find them). Thank you!
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> P.S. for what it's worth, I credit Effexor, in part, to saving my career and family. As bad as i feel at times, I don't think I could have coped without it. Same with the Klonopin (although I usually only take one pill at night)
Update 12/26 - the first few days were a little rough. Not sure if it was Effexor withdrawal or Prestiq side effects. I felt a lot of anxiety and stomach cramps. Today is my 5th full day on Prestiq and I feel very good...physically and mentally. I feel alert and have an overall sense of well being. One of the problems I was experiencing while on Effexor was extreme tiredness. I'm prescribed up to 30mg of adderal per day. Today I only took 7.5mg so I'm happy about that.I feel 'good' today. Hope this continues. As a reminder, I was taking 150 mg of Effexor for many years. I transitioned right to 100 mg of Prestiq cold turkey. I know that at 150 mg, the Effexor wasn't touching my norepinephrine levels. At 100mg, the Pristiq is. If this doesn't work, My next step would be going back on Effexor, but at 300mg. Thanks for the comments.
poster:in_denial
thread:1033516
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20121217/msgs/1033941.html