Switching from Pregabalin to Venlafaxine

Treatment and medication
1

Hi,

I have GAD and was on pregabalin but have now been asked by my doc to swap to venlafaxine.

He has said to start the venlafaxine at the same time that I start to reduce the pregabalin. Swapping the meds over a period of a week or two.

Has anyone else done this and how did they do it? Were there any complications?

I am worried, that everyone on here seems to say: do not stop pregabalin too quickly. Or is that not the case if you are merely swapping one drug to another.

I have looked at the half lives of both drugs and they are pretty similar around 6-7hrs. But does that mean where one drug stops the other will pick up the slack?

Any help much appreciated.

Thanks

Ps I have been on the drug for only 3 weeks.

2

Theres no significant interaction between those meds (possibly some extra tiredness dizziness to start) many people take them together for other issues such as pain so there isn't really any need to worry about titrating down one and titrating up the other

you've only been on pregabalin for three weeks so should be relatively easy to just switch but venlafaxine will take quite some time to take effect for anxiety, (pregab kicks in much quicker) so personally for anxiety it would have been best for your GP to keep you on the pregabalin at a lower dose with the venlafaxine until a few weeks so that once the Ven starts to kick in you could then drop pregabalin

switching straight from one to the other may leave you for a couple of weeks of increased anxiety whilst waiting for the ven to kick in but nothing to worry about. If it's bad then just ask your GP if you can take both for a while until the venlafaxine kicks in.

3

Thanks Steve,

I have now spoken to my doc and I'm going to come off the pregabalin first. I have had really bad experiences with coming off drugs and wanted to come off one drug first before starting another. That way if I'm not feeling great at least I know which drug it is.

Although I do hear you about the venlafaxine taking time to kick in. It looks like he has suggested that I reduce over a month. Perhaps the best solution then is to reduce the pregabalin for first two weeks and then, if there are no problems, start the venlafaxine for the final two weeks.

 

4

Hi wondering why the doc wanted you to come off pregabalin? If u dont mind me asking. Im on 300mg of pregabalin for GAD. I sympathise with you GAD sucks. Ive been taking it for years now. But ive put so much weight on. I started taking venlafaxine for depression aswell. But i see at higher doses this is used to treat GAD and does not make u put on weight. How u getting on with it?