Posted by Reggie BoStar on August 28, 2009, at 20:51:15
Hi Everyone,
I've been on 100mg Pristiq since the drug came on the market. It's done essentially nothing positive that I'm aware of and may have caused almost constant feelings of exhaustion and drowsiness.I'm not sure about the exhaustion part. I'm on a large mix of all kinds of meds. I only know that the exhaustion got even worse when I started Pristiq.
To combat the exhaustion and drowsiness and maybe help with depression (I thought that was a nice touch), my pdoc added Wellbutrin to the mix. After gradual increases I got to 400mg per day and stayed at that dose.
The Wellbutrin did help me stay on my feet a little better. I was still sleeping 12+ hours per day but at least I was getting things done in the 12 waking hours. Unfortunately there was no change in depression one way or the other.
I'm constantly in the Medicare prescription coverage gap ("donut hole") because of the high costs of my meds. I had been getting free samples of the Pristiq for the simple reason that the donut hole made it impossible for me to pay for the stuff.
Although I had been voicing my frustrations with Pristiq and Wellbutrin, my pdoc did not change the combo until he started running out of Pristiq samples. Two days ago he started me on a gradual changeover from Pristiq to the new generic version of Effexor. Generics are covered by my Medicare supplement.
What the... I told him I expected no change in the depression because Pristiq is nothing more than a metabolite of Effexor. Same active ingredient, same effect on depression - none.
Supposedly Wyeth did this to isolate the active ingredient in Effexor while reducing side effects caused by other ingredients. Pristiq also appeared the same time that Effexor went generic and Wyeth lost the patent. Now they have a new patent on Pristiq, which has the same active ingredient as the Effexor generic and of course costs hundreds of dollars for a one month supply. What a fortunate coincidence for everyone, right?
I had been taking two 50mg tabs of Pristiq per day. The plan was to replace one of those with one 100mg tab of Venlafaxine (generic Effexor) for a week. After the end of one week, I would replace the remaining 50mg Pristiq tab with another 100mg tab of Venlafaxine. That would result in a daily total dose of 200mg Venlafaxine.
It's only been one day - ONE DAY - and already I'm on my petard with exhaustion and drowsiness that's a lot worse than it was with the Pristiq. I slept for 17 hours. It was a totally drugged out deep sleep with no dreams I can remember. I had to force myself to get out of bed and now that I'm up the only thing I want to do is get back to sleep before I nod off while I'm standing or sitting.
This is how I feel after replacing just one 50mg Pristiq with one 100mg Venlafaxine. Active ingredient or not, it looks like Wyeth did accomplish something with reducing the side effects after all.
Anyone else experience this with Venlafaxine (Effexor), that is total exhaustion and drowsiness? Anyone get any help with depression from it?
I did ask my pdoc what the point of all this was. If the active ingredient is the same and all we're doing is playing with the side effects, why try either drug? I see him for relief from depression.
On the other hand, maybe sleeping 24 hours per day IS the fix for depression.
I should get some sleep
Reggie BoStar
poster:Reggie BoStar
thread:914590
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090826/msgs/914590.html