Terrified....weaning off of Pristiq

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been on 100 mg of pristiq a day for about 5 years. It doesn’t seem to be working anymore. My psychiatrist is weaning me off so he can start me on a new medication.
I’m scared that I will go crazy or have some horrible side effects.
I have to take 75 mg for 2 weeks then 50 mg for 2 weeks then 25 mg for 2 weeks. I am on day 3 of 75mg. I see my Dr. again in 4 weeks.

I’ve been seeing this psychiatrist for about 3 years and he is really into mindfulness and meditation etc but he feels that I might do better with a psychiatrist who uses a different approach. It kind of upset me when he said this.

I am seeing him due to anxiety and depression that started as a result of postpartum depression and got worse when my daughter was diagnosed with autism.

Has anyone else weaned off pristiq?

2

I have not weaned off Pristiq. I have weaned off other meds. I have had 2 different experiences:

  1. Wean off completely before starting something new.
    or

  2. Wean off something old, while starting to taper up on something new.

In both cases, if you are having problems at ANY step in the process stop there (don’t keep weaning) and talk to the doctor. Sometimes it takes longer to get down one step than another.

As the mother of an autistic kid to another, it is possible that other types of therapy may help you more. That is, you may be anxious, stressed, and depressed. Medication may help with some of those, but adding support groups and time with other parents in your situation may help a lot as well.

I would certainly ask a lot of questions about why this medication, and what comes next. It sounds like you may be on a med that made sense for postpartum but does not make sense for where and who you are now.

Good luck and I’ve reported this for a Forum change (to our IMHO Forum, which we use for medical advice).

3

About the best thing a psychiatrist can do for you, is to level with you about switching doctors. Don’t be upset, nobody failed, it’s time to go to the next step–it’s a positive thing!

4

I feel bad for you: anxiety (depression’s evil twin) is bad enough but anxiety PLUS changing meds is the worst.

I’m sending internet hugs! there are worth about what you paid for them, sadly. :o

5

This belongs more in IMHO where medical advice threads go. So moved.

6

A site that is helpful when tapering off psychoactive drugs is crazymeds.

7

I actually suggest you ask the doctor about cross tapering (the second option). There are roughly equivalent doses they can use to minimize withdrawal effects.

Also discuss a longer taper. There’s no reason you can’t spend longer getting off. One site recommends 10% every six weeks for the most sensitive, with a lot of success stories.

As for mindfulness, do realize that a lot of your anxiety is coming from outside of you. Try to move with it, if you can. Just observe it.

8

I weaned off Pristiq several years ago. I followed a similar schedule and had no issues.

Is there some reason you’re concerned? I thought it was Paxil that caused problems for people who didn’t wean off properly.

Incidentally, I went back to Pristiq because it turned out to work better for me than other things I tried in the interim. But that’s neither here nor there.