Suggest Ways To Wean Off Pristiq

Posted on Wed, 9 Sep 2015

Question: I have been on Pristiq for 6 years and have under advice going to try and come off the drug. I have gone from 100mg to 50 mg about 14 days ago and the symptoms are still very strong brain fogginess headaches nausea etc I really do feel very ill. Is this going to stop and will it start again when I am to come off the 50 mg. I am a General Manager and I really can't work at the moment. Please help

Answered by Dr. Shubham Mehta (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
a more gradual dose reduction needed.

Detailed Answer:
Hello
Welcome to HCM.
I can understand your concerns.

Withdrawing from pristiq can lead to potential discontinuation symdrome.

You have reduced the dosage from 100mg to 50mg and since then, you are having brain fogginess.

At this point of time, I would not advise you to reduce the dose further. Reducing the dose now will increase your brain fogginess.

I think you need a more gradual tapering down. In my opinion, you should increase the dose to 75mg for now (50mg plus 25 mg tablets). Take this dose for around 3 weeks and then consider further reduction.

Kindly discuss this with your doctor.

Hope this helps.
Take care.
Thanks.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar