Pristiq / SNRI withdrawal

[snriwithdrawal]

This is only my personal experience with Pristiq and should not be construed as medical advice.

 

I am a 40-something married female, two young children and working full-time, who decided to start Pristiq (I used to work for company that makes the product).  I thought due to the nor-epinephrine component I thought it would give me a little more energy and make me a little more happy.  It made me a little sluggish and tired, not to mention just feeling like I was in a fog.  The other noticeable side effects included constipation, nausea, decreased sexual interest, etc,  The nausea and constipation was ridiculous.   After approximately four weeks of Pristiq, I decided to discontinue the drug.  I did quite a bit of research including this website.  What a great resource this site is!  

 

I am now 7 1/2 days post my last dose.  I only did 1 day of tapering which consisted of waiting until the 36th hour past the previous dose (1 1/2 days later).  Which I know was not the preferred way to go about this.  There are truly no good answers to discontinuing Pristiq.  The last dose was on a Sunday.  Tuesday and Wednesday were my worst days.  I continued to go to work, etc.  The withdrawal nausea was bad.  That Wednesday (3 days post the previous dose) felt like a moderate-severe college hangover.  This past Friday, the vertigo was tough.  Each day thereafter I felt a little better. Today is week since the last dose.  I feel probably 90% like my old self (which is a good thing :-) ).

 

Honestly, I would have to say that due to the lack of a smaller dose, e.g. 25 mg for tapering, Pristiq will always be a no go for me.  As an example, Effexor XR has a 1/2 dose (37.5 mg) which is useful for tapering and was the 2nd generation of Effexor (Pristiq is the active metabolite of Effexor XR).  The product life-cycle was 1st Effexor then Effexor XR then Pristiq. If I need a SNRI in the future, Effexor will be my choice due to the tapering option.    

 

To reiterate, this is only my personal experience with Pristiq and should not be construed as medical advice.  These are just my two cents on the issue.

[Altostrata]

Welcome, snriwithdrawal.

 

Good to hear you're doing well 7.5 days after quitting Pristiq.

 

I hope you continue to do well. Since you were on Pristiq only a month, your near cold-turkey may be fine. It's a little too early to call yours a success story. Please check in here as time goes on.

 

People also have a very difficult time going off Effexor. In my opinion, if you can at all cope without these drugs, you should avoid taking any of them.