Posted by friendlyzombie on August 14, 2008, at 18:56:27
I'm starting Pristiq (50 mg) beginning tomorrow (August 15) and will provide weekly updates about my experience.
I've had chronic major depression for many years and have been on every SSRI at one time or another. I've had the best results by far with Lexapro (15-20 mg). However, it seems to poop out every 9 months or so, causing me to switch to something else. The last time that happened, I tried Cymbalta for 2 underwhelming months before successfully returning to Lex.
Lex has pooped out again, so I'll take 1/2 my current dose (10mg vs. 20mg) along with 50mg of Pristiq for the 1st 5 days, then discontinue Lex and see how I do on Pristiq (50mg). The manufacturer's drug trials determined the standard 50mg dose worked better than 100mg.
My depression modality needs an energizing medication, so I'll especially focus on that. I'll also report on sexual side effects, since they've not been a major problem for me (a male)with Lex.
Four years ago, I barely survived the living hell of getting off Effexor so I'll also report what happens if I eventually need to get off Pristiq (since it's an Effexor derivative).
I'll leave the patent vs. generic drug pricing discussion to others because I've never even understood why Lex works for me, but Celexa did nothing. I'm just lucky my insurance covers Pristiq.
poster:friendlyzombie
thread:846256
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080814/msgs/846256.html