Vanessa: Pristiq withdrawals and pregnant..help

[Vanessa]

Here is the quick of it..been on antidepressants for 10+ years, even managed to wean of Paxil without dying. Changed to Effexor 75 mg and used for many years, starting having night sweats and sleep disturbances about 1 1/2 years ago and GP recommended I switch to Pristiq 50mg. I have been mentally and physically doing well the last 4-5 years, exercising, yoga, mediation and eating healthy has made a huge difference in my over all well being. I should have weaned off the medication a long time ago but every time I wanted too I remembered the Paxil nightmare so I just kept taking a small dose.

 

2 weeks ago I found out that I was pregnant and that Pristiq is category C and not safe. My idiot doctor suggested 50 mg every second day for a week and then stopping. Of course I lost my mind and spent 20 minutes educating him on the ignorance of GPs and weaning/withdrawal. He referred me to a very well known psychiatrist for assistanance. In the mean time I am panicking because the 1st trimester of pregnancy is crucial to development. So I started cutting my pills in half, did this for 1 week, then in quarters for another week. Found out after the fact that I wasn't supoose to be cutting the pills because of the time release coating. I finally get in to see the psychiatrist and he at least understands the difficulty of weaning. He suggests coming off the medication completely since I'm in such a good frame of mind and am already down to 1/4 of a tablet per day. He assures me that I can come back and get a small dose of something safe if this doesn't work.

 

I have been off Pristiq since Friday and I am miserable, yesterday was the worse day. Massive headaches, dizziness (vertigo), flu symptoms, emotional, crying, irritable, you name it I felt it. Emotionally more stable today but still very dizzy, not sleepin well, and tired. I know that my symptoms are being compounded by my pregnancy so lucky me, NOT. I'm going to see a naturopath to see if they help support the withdrawals.

 

What do I do?? Do I go back to the psych and get a small dose of something to make it easier even though I'm scared to take meds while pregnant!! Or do I suck it up in hopes that it will just get better?? Please help anyone

 

 

Thank you in advance for your support

[HopeNeeded]

I am new here so I can't offer advice, but I can absolutely empathize. I am currently in a state that I can't function (work, hold conversations, drive, write, think... NOTHING). I can't imagine feeling anything like this and having to add the pregnancy component to my list of concerns. That being said - it sounds like you are handling yourself extremely well. I am hoping good things for you. xo

[Fresh]

Hi Vanessa , welcome to the site.  I'm so sorry about your predicament.

 

I would go to the Introductions section and do a search for Pregnant/pregnancy.    I know it's an issue for a bunch of women on here , but I can't think of

any names.

There is a thread called Pregnancy and Withdrawal in "Symptoms and Self Care"

 

One of the moderators is sure to be along with some more concrete advice for you.

 

Glad you found your way here.

 

Best wishes ,  Fresh

 

.

[bubble]

Hello Vanessa and welcome to SA,

 

I'm sorry you are feeling so bad. This is indeed a difficult situation but as Jaclyn said, you are handling it very well. We have a few members as Fresh mentioned who found themselves in a situation similar to yours. Here is one thread that I managed to remember: http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/7800-pregnog-stopping-escitalopram-in-early-pregnancy-help/.

 

Pregnog wrote to dr. Healy (one of the very few doctors that understands withdrawal and she shared the reply with us:

 

This is an extraordinarily difficult dilemma.  Its impossible for me to advise you without knowing a lot more about you etc and this isn't possible at the moment.

 

All I can tell you is this.  Withdrawal difficulties of the kind you had before are real and can be terrible - but they might not be so bad if you are pregnant - you have a different body now to the one you had when you tried before.

 

There is a real risk of harm - and this is the critical period for heart defects and things like that - from 2 to about 10 weeks - so the earlier you stop if you are going to stop the better.

 

There is some benefit to stopping anyway even if you do it more slowly in that other problems such as how quickly the baby develops after being born are less likely if you aren't on the meds through the whole pregnancy.

 

Its all complex.  You could remain on treatment the whole way through and your baby would be absolutely fine.  You could stop and their could be problems.  All things being equal, it looks like there is a better chance of things being okay if you stop.  

 

But this is easy for me to say and much more difficult for you to do. I would check with your partner, parents and friends.

 

I then replied and clarified a few things, and asked specifically if there was any harm to me or the baby that could be caused by withdrawal, stopping suddenly, and the symptoms this can cause, and he said no 'If you can handle any withdrawal effects, there is no harm to the baby to just stop - and all things being equal would be better'.

 

Maybe you coudl also try and get in touch with dr. Healy regarding your particular situation. The way I understood is that avoiding drugs in the first trimester is advisable, if at all possible given the severity of withdrawal symptoms. It sounds reasonable to introduce a small amount of the original drug or in case of Pristiq better Prozac if withdrawal becomes too much and not even pregnancy hormones are able to counteract it. I would advise you check the dose with experienced people here because doctors are not aware that even very tiny doses can help especialyl if one has been off drugs for some time.

 

I hope this helps. I'm glad you have found us and I hope the support and knowledge gathered here will help you on your journey. What would help us to give you more accurate sugegstions and advice is if you could put your drug history in your signature. The instructions are here: http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/893-please-put-your-withdrawal-history-in-your-signature/

 

Best,

Bubble

[Vanessa]

I am new here so I can't offer advice, but I can absolutely empathize. I am currently in a state that I can't function (work, hold conversations, drive, write, think... NOTHING). I can't imagine feeling anything like this and having to add the pregnancy component to my list of concerns. That being said - it sounds like you are handling yourself extremely well. I am hoping good things for you. xo

Thank you for your support

[Vanessa]

Hello Vanessa and welcome to SA,

 

I'm sorry you are feeling so bad. This is indeed a difficult situation but as Jaclyn said, you are handling it very well. We have a few members as Fresh mentioned who found themselves in a situation similar to yours. Here is one thread that I managed to remember: http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/7800-pregnog-stopping-escitalopram-in-early-pregnancy-help/.

 

Pregnog wrote to dr. Healy (one of the very few doctors that understands withdrawal and she shared the reply with us:

 

This is an extraordinarily difficult dilemma.  Its impossible for me to advise you without knowing a lot more about you etc and this isn't possible at the moment.

 

All I can tell you is this.  Withdrawal difficulties of the kind you had before are real and can be terrible - but they might not be so bad if you are pregnant - you have a different body now to the one you had when you tried before.

 

There is a real risk of harm - and this is the critical period for heart defects and things like that - from 2 to about 10 weeks - so the earlier you stop if you are going to stop the better.

 

There is some benefit to stopping anyway even if you do it more slowly in that other problems such as how quickly the baby develops after being born are less likely if you aren't on the meds through the whole pregnancy.

 

Its all complex.  You could remain on treatment the whole way through and your baby would be absolutely fine.  You could stop and their could be problems.  All things being equal, it looks like there is a better chance of things being okay if you stop.  

 

But this is easy for me to say and much more difficult for you to do. I would check with your partner, parents and friends.

 

I then replied and clarified a few things, and asked specifically if there was any harm to me or the baby that could be caused by withdrawal, stopping suddenly, and the symptoms this can cause, and he said no 'If you can handle any withdrawal effects, there is no harm to the baby to just stop - and all things being equal would be better'.

 

Maybe you coudl also try and get in touch with dr. Healy regarding your particular situation. The way I understood is that avoiding drugs in the first trimester is advisable, if at all possible given the severity of withdrawal symptoms. It sounds reasonable to introduce a small amount of the original drug or in case of Pristiq better Prozac if withdrawal becomes too much and not even pregnancy hormones are able to counteract it. I would advise you check the dose with experienced people here because doctors are not aware that even very tiny doses can help especialyl if one has been off drugs for some time.

 

I hope this helps. I'm glad you have found us and I hope the support and knowledge gathered here will help you on your journey. What would help us to give you more accurate sugegstions and advice is if you could put your drug history in your signature. The instructions are here: http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/893-please-put-your-withdrawal-history-in-your-signature/

 

Best,

Bubble

This group and all its information is really helping to keep me positive. Still having symptoms but it's bearable

[mammaP]

Hi Vanessa, welcome to SA. I'm glad that you found us, there is lots of info and support here. As Bubble said if things get too hard to cope with it is possible that a tiny dose of prozac could help but it would be much safer if you can ride it out. Hopefully both you and baby will be just fine.

 

Congratulations. 

[JanCarol]

I've never been pregnant (full term), nor have I tried it on antidepressants.  The risk to your baby is significant.

 

It is my understanding, from reading around SA, that at some point, your Mommy hormones will kick in, and you won't suffer so much from withdrawal until after the baby is born.  That's still a critical time, as you will probably want to breast feed - but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it?

 

Pristiq can be tricky, but people have survived it.

 

You are already well on the way with your yoga, meditation, and eating well.  There are many non-drug suggestions for coping in this forum.  Non Drug Techniques to Cope with Emotional Symptoms

 

Additionally, it may help you to consider taking magnesium and fish oil Magnesium, and Omega-3 fish oil.  Both of these are brain food, and the magnesium is an essential mineral in 300+ neurotransmitter & chemical cascades in your brain and body.

 

Welcome!  Please post your progress in here, for support, and for a journal of your experience.

[Meimeiquest]

http://kellybroganmd.com/article/stop-madness-coming-psych-meds/. This is a blog post from kellybroganmd.com. She specializes in women's health, especially peripartum issues. She makes some suggestions for natural treatment of WD symptoms, and our symptoms forum is full of them. Good luck!

[ang]

Wish you all the best,  Was on ADs   gave up quickly one pregnancy, baby was fine.   However, seriously, these drugs do great harm.  Get heart checked specifically at first scan.  Then breathe a sigh of relief xx

 

I been there done that...

Beware, for me anyway, I can only talk about personal experience.  I was happy about being pregnant, went CT, no problems.  Happy hormones kick in.  Lay and relax until they do!

 

BEWARE, WHEN BUB BORN, HAPPY HORMONES WEAR OFF, at about 6 weeks of age, and WD  hit.  Not badly, but they hit, be ready.   And anyhow

 

congratulations!  bet you are thrilled... xx

 

Keep us all posted.......

[Altostrata]

Welcome, Vanessa.

 

Very sorry that you've had to face the dilemma of pregnancy and antidepressants.

 

For your information, here is our Pristiq tapering topic Tips for tapering off Pristiq (desvenlafaxine)

 

As you can see, Effexor is very closely related to Pristiq. Although Effexor, like all antidepressants, has questionable effects on a fetus, if the withdrawal symptoms become too intense you might be able to take a few beads of Effexor XR for a short while to "redo" the tail end of your taper. This could get you over the rough spots with lower risk to the baby -- adverse effects are dosage-related.