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Q. I took Lexapro for anxiety and depression for four years before my doctor switched me to fluoxetine (which didn't work) and then to Pristiq. It was also supposed to help with my hot flashes.
This drug worked for a while, but then the benefits seemed to fade and the side effects caught up with me. I was tired all the time and developed diarrhea and fuzzy thinking. I also gained a lot of weight.
I wanted to get off Pristiq, but when I halved the dose the symptoms were unbearable: dizziness, headache, mental fogginess and "brain zaps." Little things made me so mad I would lash out. I can't believe my doctor put me on these drugs without an exit strategy. Help!
A. Neither the FDA nor the manufacturers have developed clear guidelines on how to get off antidepressants such as citalopram (Celexa), desvenlafaxine (Pristiq), duloxetine (Cymbalta), escitalopram (Lexapro) or venlafaxine (Effexor). That's why your doctor had no exit strategy.
We are sending you our Guide to Dealing with Depression, which has a number of suggestions on easing withdrawal from such medications. It also describes other treatments for feelings of hopelessness.
Withdrawal symptoms such as electric shock sensations in the brain, vertigo, irritability, digestive distress and fatigue may be eased with a very slow step-down in dose over several months.
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Check out alternative therapies. Cleanse your body through food and vitamin therapies. The body will heal itself. It worked for me. I got to the point where antidepressants would only work for a few weeks then it would not. After going through all medications out there I realized that there had to be another way. There was. Now I am free of antidepressants and feeling pretty good. It's been 4 years.
They don't work for everybody. I tried with no success.
Most of my patients are able to change antidepressants without problems. A few however, have had a very difficult time. One patient wants to start a support group that will start by saying "my name is Bill and I'm addicted to Cymbalta." Keep trying, the key for most people seems very slow decreases. It is more evidence that these meds are not as safe and innocuous as we once thought-they are changing our brains!
A doctor put me on Effexor several years ago. I took it for 4 months and never had improvement with my depression. I quit taking it and the first thing that happened was I got the worst headache that I'd ever had in my life. I took ibuprofen, acetaminophen, aspirin, and nothing helped. I finally realized that it might be the Effexor withdrawal. I took one capsule and my headache was gone within 30 minutes. I also had the brain zaps, irritability, etc. and went to several doctors who were unable to help me.
Basically it took me 3 months to taper myself off of the Effexor. A year later my husband saw something on television about a class action lawsuit against several pharmaceutical companies because of the withdrawal symptoms patients experienced when they stopped (cold turkey), taking the SSRI type of antidepressants.
This is very interesting - I've been taking Effexor for hot flashes for about 6 months and had been experiencing periodic electrical jolts in the chest that seemed to spread up to my head. Doctor couldn't explain it and I even wore a heart monitor for 2 weeks to see if the problem was heart related. Unfortunately no symptoms while I had the heart monitor on. I finally figured out that when I'd had the most symptoms were the times that I hadn't taken the Effexor (vacations) and had concluded on my own that it was probably a withdrawal symptom. Now I see that my symptoms weren't totally in my head.
I was put on pristiq. Started having light-headedness, headaches, high blood pressure, double vision, and mini-strokes after about three weeks. Psychiatrist weaned me off of pristiq through a combination of taking pristiq and another anti-depressant at varying dosages over a period of about a month until I was solely on the new medication. I had no withdrawal symptoms.