☼ Oldgator: Weaning off 100mg Pristiq and scared to death!

[oldgator]

I'm so glad I have found this sight but am also so terrified of the next steps I need to take. I've been on 100mg of Pristiq for about 4 months and I need to get off it. I have no idea what method to use to go off of Pristiq. I've taken Prozac before and it didn't do a whole lot for me. I have taken Effexor many, many years ago and vaguely remember stopping it because I couldn't sleep at night. I'm very tempted to cut my pills in half and quarters and then set my alarm to take them throughout the day. I did not do well on the 50mg of Pristiq and jumped pretty quickly to the higher dosage. I got extremely exhausted at 50mg and was pretty unpleasant to be around (got angry very quickly) so I'm not sure cutting the pills will be the way to go. That intermediate dosage is horrible for me. When I did take prozac, 20mg was the highest dose but then I went down to 10mg for a while. Does anyone know what the starting dose of prozac would be for me if I'm taking 100mg of Pristiq now? 

[dalsaan]

Hey Oldgator,

 

welcome to the site and thanks for filling out your signature.  You will find lots of info and support here.  I recommend you read through these threads:

 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/876-tips-for-tapering-off-pristiq-desvenlafaxine/   this one is specifically on tapering Pristiq

 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1024-why-taper-by-10-of-my-dosage/   This one explains our philosophy of using 10% of the previous dose as a tapering guide

 

The idea is to go slow enough to avoid withdrawal and to listen to your body.

 

Wishing you all the best

 

Dalsaan

[oldgator]

Thank you dalsaan for those links. I have already read the first one but not the second one which also answered some of my questions. I think I am going to do the Prozac bridge. My neurologist is the one who has most recently prescribed my Pristiq but I am making an appt to go back to my psychiatrist so he can hopefully help (although I know he will tell me to just stop so I'm going to print out some of this information I have found thanks to this site to show him). I want to do the liquid prozac to help control and taper the dosage. I used to take prozac (20 mg was the highest I ever took); does anyone know what a comparable dose of 100mg Pristiq is to Prozac?

[mammaP]

Here is the link for bridging with prozac Oldgator, I think you might find the information you need in there.

 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1463-the-prozac-switch-or-bridging-with-prozac/

[oldgator]

Thanks mammaP for the link. I've read through it and maybe I just didn't see the conversion for 100mg of Pristiq anywhere. I can see this is going to be a much longer process than I would like so I am going to split my 100's and shave some off and start reducing my dose down so when I switch to Prozac, I know i can at least do 20mg. The lower dose of Pristiq makes me such an impatient and mean mom to my little boys and I absolutely dread going down, especially slowly. I take my Pristiq at night now because it makes me tired during the day if I take it in the morning but I then read it reaches is peak in 7.5 hours. Maybe that's why I'm so nice in the morning and when 4-5pm comes around I turn in to crazy, angry mom. I'm going to try switching up the timing of the Pristiq as well and see if I can't time things better. I have adderall that I can use to adjust for tiredness and while I don't like having to do it, I think it's more important to be pleasant around my kids and enjoy them. I will definitely be making the phone calls to the FDA about allowing them to approve a drug with no way to discontinue it safely. So frustrated! This site is amazing and I've spent way too long reading through all the posts (I am so behind on work right now because I've been reading this site non-stop for 2 evenings). I am so thankful for everyone who has shared what has worked for them and what hasn't. 

[mammaP]

I'm sorry that the conversion table isn't in the link, I'll take a look later today and see

if it is somewhere else for you.  One thing just now, if you are splitting your pristiq tablets, that will destroy the

extended release and mean the dose is being released in one hit. That could be why you are feeling

withdrawal later in the day. It might be better for you to split the dose so you take it twice a day. 

[oldgator]

So my head is about to explode off my body. Is there a way to make it stop? I feel like no amount of Maxalt, OTC Migraine medicine, or peppermint essential oil rub is going to make a dent in my head pulsating. I get migraines usually once a month (hormone related) but over the past 2-3 months I've started getting these crazy headaches that are killer and I can't figure out how to stop them. In fact, my general practitioner just ordered a MRI to see why the headaches (vs migraines) have started. I had no idea that possibly missing a dose of Pristiq is what has caused these ridiculous headaches. I've missed doses of other drugs before and it's no big deal but I make sure never to miss 2 days in a row. I feel so stupid. It just never occurred to me that taking a drug would inflict such a horrible headache. That said, my head is killing me. I normally take my Pristiq at night as I mentioned but needing to be pleasant during the day, especially the 3-8pm time frame when I see my kids, I wanted to push everything a tad so that could happen. I cut my pristiq (100mg) in half and slightly scrap a little white medicine out to lower the dose. Shifting my dose to more of a daytime schedule has induced this monster, head pounding, headache from hell. I can take the medicine at the same time of day now (6:30am for the first dose) and I'm not sure what time for the second pill. Here are my questions if anyone can comment or tell me what not to do:

1. Is there anything I can do to make this headache go away?

2. What time do you think I should take the 2nd dose?

My goal is taper myself down from 100mg of pristiq to 50mg and then bridge with prozac. I will be calling my psychiatrist on Monday and I'm hoping he can help although he often thinks there is no need to taper. My head(ache) tells me other wise. And yes, I do know that since I cut the pill in half, the time release doesn't work which is why I am taking it twice a day. Someone please help. My head is going to explode!!

[mogfish]

Hi oldgator,

 

Sorry to hear you are having such a rotten time with Pristiq. It is a horrible drug and i had many side effects whilst taking it including insomnia, migraines, very high blood pressure requiring medication and bouts of anger. I  successfully weaned directly from Pristiq and am now just over 6 months completely Pristiq free.....oh and I no longer take blood pressure medication as my BP normalised when I reduced the dose and then stopped the pristiq.

 

Has your blood pressure been checked to make sure it is not elevated and contributing to your migraines? 

 

I'm not sure how insurance and pharmaceutical costs work in USA but I was also wondering if it would be possible for you to get a prescription for 50mg tablets so that you could take a whole 50mg tablet in the morning and  the remaining 40mg ( approx) by breaking your 100mg tablets in half and taking the smaller half in the afternoon ( even take in 2 afternoon doses( breaking the small half into quarters) if needed to reduce the dose dumping effect. This way you would be getting a more controlled dose during the day with the intact 50mg tablet and slowly reducing the afternoon dose/s by shaving off a little one quarter at a time per dose reduction and by continuing to use the 100mg tablets you could keep your costs down.

 

I'm not sure if it would work for you or even if it would be a financially viable option for you but just a thought. I'm wondering if Alto or another knowledgable administrator has any thoughts on this as maybe it is not a good idea to take a mixture of intact slow release and breached tablet. I'm no medical expert but just speaking from my own thoughts and experience with taking the drug myself and using the cutting up method for my own taper although I was only weaning from 50mg per day 

 

an example of what I mean:

 

take 50mg in morning (whole 50mg tablet)

    break 100mg tablet in half ( you almost always get a big half and a little half)

    break smaller half into quarters

take small quarter around lunchtime

take 2nd small quarter around 4 to 5 pm

...therefore attempting to keep a steady dose of the drug in your system.

 

perhaps taking the drug 3 times a day instead of twice might help with your migraines as smaller doses more frequently regardless of whether you use 50mg or 100mg tablets

 

If you need to take your Pristiq at night time, you could maybe still do this by taking the 50mg at bedtime then the smaller doses the following morning and early afternoon??

 

I hope this makes sense and I know it seems like a lot of mucking around but just some more options for you. 

 

I wish you all the best oldgator. It is possible to come off this horrible drug successfully so take heart and hang in there

[Altostrata]

Excellent idea, mogfish.

 

oldgator, did you miss a dose of Pristiq before the headaches started? Yes, this could destabilize your nervous system and cause headaches.

 

Changing your dose now might cause further destabilization. How long have you been reducing Pristiq this time around? Have the headaches stopped?

 

100mg is a very high dose of Pristiq. Your doctor's reasoning this would cause less side effects is very odd -- side effects are dosage-related. Pristiq and Prozac are very different drugs, any equivalence is going to be a guess. 20mg is the usual dosage of Prozac while 50mg is the usual dosage of Pristiq. Most likely your nervous system would have been saturated at 50mg, 100mg doesn't do much more. Switching to Prozac at any dose always incurs additional risk. My guess is 30mg or 40mg Prozac wouldn't be of any more help than 20mg.

[oldgator]

Mogfish - I love that idea and would have never thought of that. Thank you for that suggestion. And yes, my blood pressure has been checked recently and it was okay but that explains why a few times over the past 2 months it's been much higher than normal.

 

Alto - I delayed my dosage which is what started the headaches. I messed around with the dosage for just 3 days and then became terrified (and completely overwhelmed with my head killing me) so I started taking the 100mg pill again but now it's in the morning. My headache finally went away yesterday! I think I've read somewhere that caffeine is not good when you have a headache with this drug and I believe I experienced that this weekend. I felt like my headache was subsiding some on Sunday and then I drank a coke and my head started pounding again. Then again, it could be coincidence. To error on the side of caution, I'm giving up my one soda a day. I've been wanting to and this is a good enough reason for me. 

 

As for the reasoning behind the dosage increase, I can't recall what chemical exactly he was talking about but that at the lower dosage it wouldn't stimulate it enough but at a higher dosage, it would stimulate it. I won't find out the answer to that for another 2 weeks when I see my neurologist again. My neurologist gave it to me to try and help with OCD issues because most of the families of medication I need to take to help that, I can't because of my medical situation. I go tomorrow to see my psychiatrist who I haven't needed in a long time because my neurologist decided to prescribe adderall to me and the neurologist I had before didn't feel comfortable prescribing it to me so I needed to use my psychiatrist. I have a psychiatrist and have been on almost every SSRI, SNRI, etc because for years nothing ever worked. It turns out, the reason I was so tired and exhausted wasn't because I was depressed (although it was depressing to be so tired all the time), but because I have narcolepsy. I had 3 sleep tests done and was completely blown away by the effect the prozac had on the study results. I was taking prozac during the first sleep test, had been off of it for 2 weeks for the 2nd test, and off of it for 3 months for the third test. To see the difference that type of drug makes on the results was quite astounding regarding the amount of REM sleep I was getting. 

 

Since getting the narcolepsy diagnosis and correct medication for that, things have been pretty darn good ... except for the level of OCD that exists within my brain. We knew it was kind of a long shot for Pristiq to work in that manner and I had NO IDEA about Pristiq and the horrid drug that it is so I just went along with it. I'm excited and nervous to go the psychiatrist tomorrow. I"m hoping he will help and not be too offended that I let the neurologist try a medication. The psychiatrist tried Brintellix and it didn't do a thing for me and he wanted me to try another medication that was in a class that I'm not supposed to take and I didn't want to so I listed to my neurologist and tried Pristiq. 

 

OK. Here is what my doctor was talking about. Both of these quotes are from Medscape. 

"Only antidepressants that potently inhibit presynaptic reuptake of serotonin appear to be effective in treating obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)."

and this

"The dual serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor antidepressants (SNRIs) venlafaxine (Effexor) and duloxetine (Cymbalta) may also have efficacy in OCD, and they have safety and tolerability profiles comparable to those of the SSRIs. However, neither has yet been FDA-approved specifically for treatment of OCD." 

 

I'll update tomorrow and let you know what the psychiatrist said and what method I am going to use to taper. Thank you so much for your help and feedback. I really appreciate your time and comments. 

[Altostrata]

In clinical studies, which is where I presume your doctors get their informaion, 100mg Pristiq is not any more effective for anything than 50mg.

 

Your doctors are experimenting on you.

[oldgator]

OK. I went to the psychiatrist today and he has given me 50mg of Pristiq that I am supposed to start taking tomorrow. I will start 20mg of Prozac tonight and overlap for 5 days. I'm a professor and have to teach tomorrow so I'm very tempted to take the 20mg of Prozac tonight and then take my last dose of 100mg in the morning so that I won't get a massive headache in the middle of class. I get the crazy headaches from Pristiq so fast and they last for so long and I find that nothing relieves them so I'm a little nervous of getting one tomorrow. I guess I could just wait one more day and add the prozac tomorrow night instead. I can't believe I listened to a neurologist about psych medicines. Any advice on what to do - start tonight with 20mg of prozac and modify (100mg of pristiq tomorrow morning), start tonight and don't modify tomorrow (50mg of Pristiq), or just wait a day? So many choices. I just want off this drug.

 

My doctor did tell me to go down to 50mg of Pristiq and then take one every other day for a week. I know that is so horrible and I can't do that. Any suggestions about what to do with that? Do I try and use those pills somehow or just make the jump for 5 days doing both pristiq and prozac and then don't look back and just stay with the prozac? Ugh. I need to be able to function somewhat. I am teaching 2 classes, my 2 boys need me to care for them (ages 5 and 6) and I have a husband who is away right now but will be back for just 8 days at the end of next week. I can try and time something when there might be the worst of the withdrawal but it sounds like I just need to do it and have faith that I can function when I need to. 

[Altostrata]

oldgater, please read this topic on tapering Pristiq carefully

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/876-tips-for-tapering-off-pristiq-desvenlafaxine/  

 

Getting off Pristiq is difficult for anyone. mogfish had an excellent idea about combining 50mg tablets with fragments of a 100mg tablet to step down from 100mg to 50mg.

 

mogfish is a Pristiq veteran, she knows whereof she speaks.

 

To my mind, stepping down from 100mg to 50mg and then switching to 20mg Prozac would be preferable to switching from 100mg Pristiq to 20mg Prozac.

 

If you switch from 100mg Pristiq to 20mg Prozac, you compound the risk of a decreased dosage plus a drug change.

 

Pristiq and Prozac are very different drugs. Chances are a switch from Pristiq to Effexor XR would be better tolerated than a switch to Prozac, but there are no guarantees for any of this, so you get to pick your poison.

 

At any rate, be practical and do this stuff on a weekend or a vacation.

[oldgator]

Alto - thanks for the feedback. I hate this drug and the headaches that I get from it are not tolerable anymore. It feels like my brain is about to explode open from the pressure. I honestly don't know if I can stay on pristiq to wean down to 50mg. I can't stand it. I so don't know what to do. I feel like splitting the pills up and taking them throughout the day would maybe work but I know my dr won't go for it. Do I just do it anyway but then that still leaves me taking Pristiq when I can't handle it anymore. The headaches that I get with this drug put me out of commission and I can't afford that with working part-time, 2 young boys, and a husband away in the military. 

 

Ok. So Alto, you think I should not do the Prozac yet and just do pristiq 50mg (which is down from 100mg) and see how that goes? I do love Mogfish's ideas about breaking up the dosing. I just don't know if I can stay on pristiq for that long.  I know my dr will flip and I need to him to prescribe 50mg pills to use eventually. Ahhh. I don't know what to do but need to start doing something. 

 

So I can split up the pills and stay on pristiq and take it multiple times a day knowing that my dr will probably flip or I can switch to 50mg and pray that my brain doesn't notice a difference. Oh my goodness. I don't have anxiety on a normal basis but I'm a basket case right now. Thank you for the input.

[twirlie]

Oldgator I can't offer you much advice as I am going through a rough time too, but i just wanted to say that I have read your posts and feel for you. I know how tough this is. It is a really scary process and I was unlucky in that my Doctor gave me some bad advice and I came off Pristiq cold turkey. After 4 weeks I couldn't take it anymore and a different doctor put me onto Lovan 20 (prozac) which I am using to try and stabilise myself before trying a very slow taper from that in the future.

 

This is a tough process, but i hope the fact that you have found this forum before starting will make things much better for you. You will get through it.

 

Is it possible for a compunding chemist to make up different doses of Pristiq? If I had a chance again I would look into that, but I'm not sure if it's possible.

[mogfish]

Hi oldgator. I can understand how confused and anxious you must be feeling right now. It is very difficult to be going through this process without the guidance and support from the medical doctors who put us on these drugs in the first place.

 

I'm a nurse and never believed that I would be seeking out advice from an internet forum but here I am and because of this site and the guidance and support I received, I have managed to successfully come off Pristiq. I know how anxious you must be feeling right now as I experienced the same anxiety when I first began to taper and again towards the end when I had a bit of a rough time.

 

In the past I had complete faith in what my GP and psychiatrist was telling me to do and as a result I ended up attempting suicide more than once after dose changes and abrupt cessations as advised by my Doctor, I lived through horrible side effects and soul destroying withdrawal symptoms on and off for years without understanding what was happening to me.  I too was told to come off pristiq by taking one every second day and we all know how successful that method is!!!!........yet this is what our Doctors and psychiatrists are telling us  to do!! 

 

I am not anti the medical profession as I myself work amongst some brilliant people but I am  disheartened to see how many peoples lives have been ruined by the over prescription and often unnecessary prescribing of anti depressants.

 

The advice I want to offer you now is to please listen to the advice you are getting from this site. Nobody can tell you what to do as ultimately the decision is up to you but the advice offered here is given with extensive research and personal experience

Withdrawal is not an easy road no matter what avenue you decide to take but by going slowly and listening to your body  it will hopefully be manageable and you will not experience crippling side effects that some others have experienced by tapering too fast, messing with dosing, or going cold turkey. The fact that you have only been on pristiq for a short time and don't have a long history of antidepressant use will most likely be an advantage to you so take heart.

 

I think it is very unlikely that Alto is telling you to drop down to 50mg now. I think she was actually suggesting that you slowly taper down from 100mg to 50mg and then switching to prozac may be an option once you have stabilised at 50mg. You may find that as you slowly reduce the dose then the headaches will lessen just as many of my side effects lessened as I reduced my dose. As tempting as it is to drop down quickly it may in fact have a rebound effect and you end up feeling worse which is something you would very much want to avoid. 

[oldgator]

Twirlie - thank you for your support and encouragement. I'm sorry you had a rough time with Pristiq and I am trying to learn all I can about this crazy drug and appreciate the feedback you shared about your experience. I hope you can get some relief soon.

 

Thank you so much for your support and words of wisdom mogfish. I woke up this morning with this rushing feeling of hurry to try and do something and make a huge decision but your response was just perfect for me.  My body tells me I need to go slowly and if my doctor is made with me, that's okay because ultimately I'm the one who has to deal with the withdrawal effects. As much I don't like Pristiq, I will take it for a bit longer until I wean myself down to 50mg. I am calm now. Thank you so much for listening!!! May you have a blessed day.

[Altostrata]

As mogfish said, I would use a 50mg tablet plus 3/4 of a 50mg tablet (37.5mg) to make the first reduction to 87.5mg.

 

Second reduction: a 50mg tablet plus 1/2 of a 50mg tablet (25mg) to go to 75mg.

 

Third reduction: a 50mg tablet plus 1/4 of a 50mg tablet (12.5mg) to go to 62.5mg.

 

Fourth reduction: a 50mg tablet.

 

Most likely, you will find 50mg Pristiq has a completely different effect on you now. Your nervous system is different.

[oldgator]

Alto - thank you for the suggest taper. I was thinking about that today and then decided I would figure it out later. I have lots of 100mg left and just 9 50mg tablets right now. I will see my psychiatrist again next Thursday and then inform him of what I'm doing and I'm sure he'll give me a prescription for more. If not, I will go to my neurologist who gave me the prescription originally and he would. I feel much safer doing this. As much as I hate pristiq and just want off it, I want to go down to 50mg before I do the switch. Today I took a 50mg tablet and then after thinking about what mogfish suggested, I went ahead and took a small quarter of the 100mg at 7:30am and then took the other small quarter at 4:30pm. I ended up doing that because I want to trick my body into thinking it has it's full dose in the morning to hopefully keep the headache away for as long as possible. I haven't felt any different today (praise the Lord no headache) so I figure I'll do this for a bit and then do the next taper. Should I try and do one bigger dose rather than splitting it up into 2 smaller doses? It would make tapering easier but I am just trying to prevent withdrawal at the moment. I welcome any thoughts on tapering down from 100 to 50g by taking a single dose in the morning or continue to do as I did today and divide the small dose up. I will update soon. I really appreciate everyone's support and encouragement. 

[mogfish]

Hi oldgator,

 

You have answered your own question when you said "I am just trying to prevent withdrawal" with splitting up the dose over the day rather than taking all at once. Follow your instincts oldgator as they are there to protect you and will serve you well.

I am a huge believer in that deep down we all know what is good for us but sometimes our fears, anxieties and what other people think creep in so we start doubting ourselves and ignore our gut instincts.

 

Remember that when you break the tablets up that you have breached the slow release coating so in theory your body will get the dose quickly rather than over the course of the day. this is why when I tapered I took my broken pristiq in 2 doses. taking the unbroken 50mg would in theory be a good thing for you as you will have a steady stream of the drug in your system but at a lower level than what your body is used to hence the top ups as you have been doing.

 

If your doctor gives you further scripts for 50mg tablets then the tapering method Alto has suggested above would certainly be easier as less mucking around but using the 100mg fragments would work too ( I'm thinking more of financial cost and using up what you have) You could maybe stabilise on your current regime using whole 50 mg and 100mg fragments  for a month or so getting your body used to the cut up tablets then follow Alto's tapering schedule.

 

Remember to hang on to the larger halves that you almost always get when breaking the tablets in half as you may find these useful at a later stage.

 

I am so glad that you have had a headache free day today, I hope you wake up well rested and headache free and looking forward to the weekend with your boys

[Altostrata]

oldgator, the way you're managing the transition is very sensible. See how your body responds to a 50mg and half a 100mg tablet -- your total daily dose is still the same 100mg. (I don't think there's not going to be any difference between taking 1/2 or two quarters of the 100mg tablet, unless you want to space the dosing out for some reason.)

 

This will get you used to the idea of splitting the tablet.

 

It will take about 4 days for the change to register. Let us know how you're doing, then decide from there what to do next.

[oldgator]

Alto - I am taking it in two doses versus just a half of the 100mg since it's just dumping it into my gut or bloodstream seeing how the time release isn't going to work anymore. I'm finishing up the 2nd day of the new dosage and things are fine so far. I cut up a few more 100's and made sure I shaved some medicine off the bigger half of the pills to make sure I'm still getting a slightly lower dose than the 100 alone. I guess I'll give it 2-3 more days and then if I'm still feeling fine, I'll shave a little more off. I've only been on the medication for 4 months so I don't feel like I need to be staying at a dosage for 3-4 weeks right now. I'll take each taper as it comes but want to give it enough time to if I will have side effects. I have major side effects if I forget a pill so I'm just praying off the headache now. I'm getting as much grading and work done as possible while I feel good and have no headache. I appreciate the feedback alto and mogfish. 

[Altostrata]

Please try to get a prescription for 50mg tablets to take in combination with partial tablets, this will make the ride down to 50mg smoother.

[oldgator]

I took my small 1/4 last night about 3 hours later than I have for the past couple nights and that just did me in. I've had a headache since last night and can't shake it. The good news is that it's a 8 out 10 (10 being the worst/highest amount of pain). It's been 24 hrs that I've had the headache now so I'm just waiting to see if it will take 3 days like normal if I miss a dose or if the headache will subside sooner. Maybe it's here to stay for a while since my body can feel the taper better now. 

 

Alto, when I see the dr on Thursday I will ask for a script of 50mg rather than 2 sample packs he gave me last week.

[Altostrata]

Please keep your dosing schedule regular.

[mogfish]

Hi oldgator,

 

Sorry to hear that the headaches are back. Maybe you could set the alarm on your phone for the same time every afternoon so you don't delay your doses?

 

I also was wondering if you are actually swapping between the big halves and the little halves of the 100mg tablet?

 

Just a thought but if you were to be taking the little halves of 100mg tablet( in 2 doses if you prefer)  on top of the whole 50mg tablet  then you already have a slight dose reduction as "guesstimating" that the little half would be around 40mg give or take.

If however you are taking the big half on top of the whole 50mg tablet then you would in fact be getting a total dose just over 100mg which i imagine is not what you are wanting to do.

 

For me I cut up several tablets at once and put the bigger halves away for later and if you are a little bit "scatty" from withdrawal and headaches then make sure you put them right away from the little halves so you don't accidently swap back and forth between the two.

 

I very much hope you start to feel better in the next few days and try to be very consistent so your body/brain has the best chance to stabilise 

[oldgator]

Hi there. My headache lasted for 2 days which is better than normal I set an alarm the same day I got off schedule and have been fine (taking the medicine on-time) since then. Mogfish - I have decided I don't like big and little pieces for the exact reason you mentioned so I make the big pieces into little pieces by shaving medicine off them until they are smaller. Just this morning I made up the next 3 days of medicine. When I make up my next set of medicine, I will scrape a little more out of the pill so that it's looking like something between a quarter and an eighth. I want to go slow but I also want to get off this stuff as soon as possible. I figure I'll make them a tad smaller for a week and see how it goes. Since I haven't been on the medicine that long, I don't feel the need to stay at this dosage for weeks to a month. That said, I do realize (thanks to Alto) that it takes 4 days for my body to process a change in dosage so I'm giving it that amount of time at least. I'll check back in soon. I'm so thankful to be tapering down and things going well so far (in this first step) I see the psychiatrist on Thursday and while I'm sure he won't be too excited about my self-prescribed plan (thanks to this awesome site and caring people), I'm pretty confident he'll prescribe me 50mg pills so that I can be more accurate about tapering. If things continue to go well, I might just do a straight taper from pristiq rather than birding over to prozac. We'll see though .....

[Petunia]

Thanks for the update oldgator, it sounds like you are doing well so far I'm glad your headache didn't last so long.  I hope your appointment goes well on Thursday, do let us know.

[oldgator]

I went to the dr last Thursday and he gave me some more 50mg of pristiq. I am continuing with a direct taper as of right now. I am down to a 50mg pill and then 1/4 of a 50mg pill (12.5mg) in the morning and evening. I was getting close to that with the 100mg pills a few days ago but those are so hard to try and control the dosage so I am thankful I have more 50mg pills to use so I can get a more accurate dosage. I will do this for another 2-3 days and then will try 1/8 of a pill. No more headaches at the moment which is great. I am so tired and exhausted which is what this middle dose does for me so I am trying to be patient but also just want to get off this drug so I can feel awake again. Overall, good taper so far.

[oldgator]

My tapering is going well so far and I am really thankful that even though I didn't taper like my doctor wanted, he was open to hearing what I had to say. He clearly doesn't want me to take as long to taper as I was hoping so I am going to my neurologist who is the one who originally prescribed the medication for me. I am going to tell him I want to quit it and ask for at least a 30 day supply of 50mg pills. I'm praying he goes for this. Once he's okay with that I will then suggest he not put anyone else on this evil drug. That said, I am wondering what my next taper should look like. I'm not sure which of these sounds best:

• get rid of the pill in the afternoon
• decrease both the morning and evening dose to 1/8 of pill

Any insight would be helpful. I've been taking 1/4 of a pill in the evening and am going to start 1/8 of a pill in the afternoon today. I will stay on this for at least 4 days and then do one of the above probably. I hate this stage of the dosage because I'm just so tired. I am LOVING not always being angry though, especially in the evening when my medicine was wearing off. I had no idea that the medicine was affecting me that much. I still haven't filed my FDA complaint yet but hopefully I can get to that next week. 

[Fuzzylogic]

Hi Oldgator.

 

Did you dr give you a script at all or are you waiting to speak to neurologist?

Will 30 days be enough? I am stressing as I have more than 30 days supply, but what I have does not fit in with my slow taper.

From everything I've read it appears you may be tapering too fast. I'm sure someone more experienced can advise but I would hold a bit longer on the dose you are on.

It sounds like you're doing well.

Take care

Fuzzy

[oldgator]

Hi Fuzzylogic - 

I did see my neurologist and he gave me a script and said he'll give me more if I need it. I haven't been on Pristiq for that long so while I want to taper slow, I may be able to get away with tapering a bit faster. That said, I've not taken my evening dose for 2 days now and things have been just great. I'll wait another few days and then cut out the morning 1/8 of a pill and then be on just 50mg. I'm going to listen to my body but right now but I also don't think my body needs to stay at these higher doses for too long. The tiredness I get from this dosage doesn't help either so I am so exhausted lately. I want to quickly and safely get out of this range of dose because my body does not function well on it. I hope you are doing better.

[Altostrata]

Please don't push it. Let us know how you're doing.

[oldgator]

Check in. A single 50mg pill has been going just fine so today I start Phase II (my own terminology) and break up to the 50mg pill to try and direct taper off Pristiq. I just cut it in half and took half this morning and will take the other half later today. I'll let you know how it goes. Praying for no headache.

[Fuzzylogic]

Hi Oldgator

 

How is Phase II going? Hope no headache.

[oldgator]

Hi Fuzzylogic. So nice of you to ask. Amazingly and surprisingly, it's going very well. I've been on the same dosage of about 25mg in the morning and late afternoon for 3.5 days now. I'm shocked and very thankful. I think over the weekend I will try and do another taper and 12.5mg. I really want to get off this stupid drug (it's also caused some weight gain). I need to jump over to your board and see how you are doing.