Weight Gain On Pristiq? (Page 8)

I have been on Pristiq now since November of 2008...not quite 5 months...and I have put on 15 lbs since starting it. DESPITE working out with a trainer at the gym twice a week weight training, 3 days a week of cardio AND counting calories. My doc assured me that I would also have a decreased appetite on Pristiq, which I have yet to find true...so he has now increased my dosage to 400 mg. Does anyone have anything to add to this?? I'm just frustrated!

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I have been on Pristi for about 2 years and l feel a lot better with it less depression,obsessive thoughts and less anxiety although l still do have anxiety.I don't know if its the drugs fault or mine coz l love to eat but since being on Pristiq l can no longer fit into any of my jeans this upsets me apart fom that the drug is good for me but l have to seriously address my weight gain.

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I have only been on Pristiq for about a month. I love the medication. Before taking the Pristiq, I would lay around the house all the time. I would only leave for work and church. I did not feel confident enough to dirve myself any where other than my routine driving. Since taking the medication, I have driven to New Orleans (in the traffic). I drove six hours home from Florida, and I love my husband and my children more. With all of this being said, I am concerned about the weight gain. I am hungry more often then before taking the medication. My though process to justify this extra eating was since I feel better, I will walk the weight off. I am beginning to feel like I am going to lose the battle with weight gain. I DO NOT want to go back to who I was before pristiq. What do I do????

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I am on Pristiq. I haven't necessarily gained weight, but I can not for the life of me LOSE weight. I go to the gym, I count calories, I walk my dogs every night..... The weight just won't come off.

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Woah. This is all pretty dramatic! Don't worry too much about weight gain on Pristiq. Initially, it tends to cause weight loss, but people generally gain all the weight back. It isn't a magic bullet but it helps.

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I have been on Pristiq for a year and a half. I gained over 20 lbs., have difficulty getting to sleep, and zero sex drive. So, you say, get off it. Tried twice and ended up with migraine headaches so bad that I thought I was going to have a stroke -- and that's just taking 25 mg. instead of 50mg a day. I used to be thin and I dread seeing people I haven't seen awhile. I feel like Brittany Spears without ever being on any illegal drugs.

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I've tried many ADS(paxil, wellburtin, cymbalta, effecor, lexapro) on and off for 15 years. The most success I had was on wellburtin 150 mg. I was on it for 4yrs, but stopped b/c I thought I didn't need it anymore. 3 yrs. later I tried it again but this time I had bad side effects like hostile, agitation, and mood swings. That was 5 yrs ago. Now, it's been 2yrs. & I've tried cymbalta 75mg, but I felt like a zombie all day for a month! So I started taking Lexapro 50mg for 8 mos., but got off it for gaining weight. Then I was on Pristiq 50mg (1xdaily) for 6 mos. It worked for my major depression & anxiety, but I had side effects. I always felt bloated, had high BP, and gain 10lbs. The worse part was that I thought I was losing weight due to loss of appetite. It wasn't until I had Doc. appt. in June that I realized I had gain 10lbs.since last Dec.09. Iam at my heaviest I've ever been!! I was extremely upset because I've had trying to lose weight (exercising 5x a week/burning 500-600calories daily & counting daily calories) from the last A.D.(lexapro). I even had blood work done to check for thyroid or other problems, but it all came back normal. Needless to say, i've been off Pristiq 50mg for a week & half and don't feel bloated anymore. My stomach is smaller but I'm still struggling to lose the weight despite my effort. I got off Pristiq 50mg slowly, splitting it in half for 2 weeks and then took a quarter of a half for 2 weeks. Once I was completely off it, the only withdrawal was occasional head ting or some people called them brain zaps.I feel normal now.

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Pristiq made me loose my entire appetite. The only thing I'd have was coffee (at least 5 cups a day) and eat dinner at night.
Did this for 3 weeks so far, I can happily suggest this to people if you want to loose weight as I have lost 5 kilos in those weeks.
:D

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I'm looking for an anti-depressent that doesn't give me weight gain. It's like be depressed, anxious and thin, or be happy but fat. And being fat causes depression. If you gain weight on your meds, I think you should switch out

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I agree, Chris. That's why I stopped using this Antidepressant. I'm happy now & do not plan on taking another new one until I have to. My depression comes in cycles/ recurrent episodes.

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I have been on 50mg of Pristiq for about a year and 6 mths. For 4 years I tried every anti depressant available some would work for awhile then stopped, other made my depression worse. I too gained about 70lbs from the taking anti depressants. However, since I have been on Pristiq, I am a TOTALLY different person no more depression. I have been able to lose 30lbs. within 4mths while on Pristiq and some help from Jenny Craig and the gym. However, I do suffer from night sweats and insomnia since taking Pristiq. I am taking a sleeping aid to help and have noticed after taking that medication my appetite is crazy and in some cases I have experienced sleep eating. I know everyone is different but Pristiq has made a huge difference for me . Even with the huge amount of weight I gained before taking Pristiq, I have not resorted to the depressed recluse I once was. I still have a long way to go with the weight loss, but it can be done on Pristiq at least for me...hope this relieves some of the concerns others have experienced. Also, prior to Pristiq I never had any sex drive, but I do now while on Pristiq. I just hope Pristiq continues to work.

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Wow, I am so happy I stumbled on this discussion today. I take 100mg of Pristiq and am seeing my doc tomorrow. I know I am going to be in trouble for added weight gain. I have to wonder if this is part of the problem. I may overeat once in a while or have a snack but not so much as all the weight I have gained. I walk the dogs 3 times a day, work out, etc. She told me in the beginning this should cause me to lose weight and that doesn't seem to have worked for me. I'll let you know if we try another combo. I have also had the trouble sleeping, wild dreams, but I figured it was just coming before menopause - maybe not!

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I was on effexor for about 5 years, when I was feeling good, I just stopped taking it, but every time I took myself off of it, I had a depression relapse, big time....so, my Dr would put me back on it....he increasead the dose each time until I got to the point were I was taking 225 mg daily, until finaly it was not enough....so, my Dr added abilify 2 mg, the conbination of the two meds was working wanderful for my depression, but, I gained 22 pounds in 6 months since abilify was added to it. Then I was put on welbuterin...lost 20 pounds in 2 months....but it did not work for my depression, I had to be hospitalized for major depression while on it, then I was put on cymbalta....that did not make any changes, I ended up in the hospital for the second time in threee months, well...I returned to see my former Dr ( I had fired him because he had put me on abilify and made me gain 22 pounds) He put me on prestiq 50 mg. Thank God...! made me feel back on my shoes....have energy and enjoy life now....a little hyper....but I like it because I have energy to work out, go to work, just enjoy things.....

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I've been on Pristiq for 2 years, 50 mg for 18 months and 100 mg for the last 6 months. I've gained 15 pounds, have no energy, no motivation, either sleep too much or have a hard time sleeping, have terrible constipation, and want to get off it asap. Is it not plausible that all of my symptoms are the result of the drug simply not working the way it was intended to work anymore? OR my not needing it anymore? I was on Prozac for 10 years and off it for 11 years. Any comments would be helpful. Thank you!

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Ann M:
That's really EXACTLY how I felt and the reason I went off. I had been on almost a year and a half. I HAD to nap daily, and I was getting decent sleep at night. I put on 32 lbs. In the beginning, I could totally tell and feel the difference in me. By the end, I felt like it was just a bad relationship: I was more depresssed and disgusted with myself. The Pristiq magic just seemed to be gone. I was on 50 mg. a day (I think.) I went off it. Sadly, the 32 lbs haven't fallen off me as I thought they would. That bums me out even more. But now I'm going to Weight Watchers, exercising and moving more. I still take a rest period sometimes a nap from anywhere to 1/2 hour to 1 hour. On Pristiq, a 2 hour nap wasn't unusual. And it never really helped. I almost felt like life was just passing me by.

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I have been taking Pristiq since January 2010. I have gained at least 20 lbs. It is awful. I gained weight in my stomach, legs, and arms. I feel like a body builder or something. Since, I can't stop the weight gain, I am weaning myself off of this drug. I am more depressed now, since gaining so much weight that this drug is useless. I can't weight to get back to the weight before I was on this horrible medication. It sucks! Beware!

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I went off Effexor after 10+ yrs because I felt that it was no longer working so I switched to Pristiq 50mg. I felt better again but was so hungry all the time and could never seem to feel full, I gained weight but did not connect it to the drug because I had had surgery on my broken ankle around the same time and attributed the weight gain to the inactivity, still the huge increase in appetite didn't make much sense. When I realized that it was probably the change in meds I decided to try the Effexor again since I had some left over from last rx, I noticed from the very first day that my appetite was normal again.This will be my 4th day and no side effects from switching back (same class of drugs I guess) I am positive that the Pristiq was responsible for the insatiable appetite!!!! BEWARE!!!!!!!!

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Well, saw my doc and decided to really try to keep a log of everything I was eating and my exercise to determine if it's just me eating too much or the pristiq. She also gave me something else at nite, can't remember what it is at the moment but supposed to help me sleep better. It's a vicious circle, you are depressed and you eat more and you get more depressed etc. I do think the pristiq has helped with my depression but has it added to weight gain? not sure. I am over 50 and have really hard periods so it could be hormones too - there are just so many factors - ugh! So, I will keep you all up to date with my weight loss experiment - I really do hope it's just me eating too much and not the meds. I eat pretty healthy - I think it's just portion size - we shall see!

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Day 3 of Pristiq withdrawal and other than the dizziness which is worse when I turn my head too fast, my symptoms are manageable. Nausea was awful yesterda (day 2) but today not so much. NO signs of depressive thinking, energy seems increased already. This is a cold turkey withdrawal, I know it's not recommended but as much as I love my PC, I think she doesn't know as much as a shrink would know about ADs. I think Wyeth gave her lots of samples and kind of encouraged her to prescribe this wonder drug. She MAY know a lot more than I'm giving her credit for, to be fair. However, as difficult as withdrawal is, I think that it needs to be looked into as far as real drug safety goes. I'm glad to be getting off it!

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I just recently got off Pristiq and glad for it. I was on it for almost one year and I'm convinced that it is the cause for my extreme weight gain and more importantly, inability to lose weight. I was only prescribed Pristiq for chronic pain for which I couldn't hold a full time job nor work out like I wanted to. When I started feeling better, I finally started working and doing Pilates all the time. Did I lose weight? No! I gained it. I was way more active then I was before taking Pristiq. Does that make sense? Not only did I gain unsightly weight in my belly I was hungry all the time and all I wanted to eat was dessert. I'm a nutritionist and Pilates instructor. Come on folks! Now that I'm off it, my appetite has become normal again and the sugar cravings are subsiding.

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Day 5 of withdrawal and iti's SO MUCH BETTER!!!!! Dizziness subsiding, no need for the dramamine so far today. Got on the scale this morning and I am 14 pounds heavier! Hopefully with the cessation of the drug, it will come back off. Also notice more energy, not as much fatigue, more brain-energy if that makes sense. So glad to have this blog for the support! Thank you all!

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