Reducing Venlafaxine from 75mg tablet to 37.5mg tablet

Hi Julieann

I too coming off Venlafaxine as advised by my GP.  I was on 150mg a day (2 x 75mg tablets).

I reduced it from 150mg a day to 75mg a day for three weeks.

As from tomorrow I am on 37.5mg a day for 4 weeks then I stop altogether.

I have been taking multivitamins & cod liver oil as it was suggested on a few forums I went on.

Good luck x

Reducing is always hard but i would do it gradually like a little bit every week or 2 weeks then u wont feel the drop hun ... Im on 300mg of venlafaxine x

glad to hear you are in a good place, im the opposite, been tapered up the way from 75mg to 250mg per day x

Are you on the tablets or capsules which contain little beads?  Venlafaxine withdrawal can be horrible.  How long have you been on Ven?  This one is really important to take slowly.  Unfortunately, the docs tend to want to work with the increments the drugs come in, recommending taking a half a pill for a week, and then jumping off from there or some such madness.

You may well experience withdrawal cutting 50%.  I don't remember, because my memory is shot from being on this drug anyway, but I believe that I had some ridiculous incidences with a vehicle when I made that cut from 75 to 37.5 mg, or maybe it was 150 to 75, can't recall!  At any rate, my vehicle incurred damage more than once from lapses in concentration!  I'll leave it at that :-)

I went through horrific protracted withdrawal for 10 months after a too-fast taper off of Ven last year.  I didn't realize it was withdrawal though, thought I had relapsed, though the level of madness was unlike anything I had ever experienced before in my life!  I ended up back on 37.5 mg Ven after being put on mirtazapine which pooped out quickly.  Only after that did I learn about protracted withdrawal.  So, I am now doing a slow taper of 10% per month, and it is going very well.  However, it requires being willing to take some extreme measures.

I weigh my doses with a milligram jeweler's scale, obtained for about $25 from Amazon.  I weighed several capsules, took the average weight, and the started weighing out 90% of that and taking it.  Each month I cut 10% off the previous dose.

This may seem to fussy and you could chance it by doing the increments that your doctor dictates, but just know that if you start having unacceptable symptoms (for me it was extreme hot flashes/sweating, heart palps, increased blood pressure and heart resting pulse, mental fog/confusion, memory problems, and later, extreme anxiety, insomnia and depression), you can always go back to the previous dose, stabilize for awhile, and then adopt the 10% taper that I have described.  

Some feel they can tough out ven withdrawal, but I'm telling you, they are brought to their knees and end up reinstating.  Fast tapers and cold turkeys lead to protracted withdrawal that can last for not just months but years, so slow and steady actually does win the race.  Getting off fast does not mean getting withdrawal over with fast; it is rather paradoxical!

I hope your taper goes smooth and trouble free.  I have written up a post with links to helpful info about tapering and getting off successfully here:

https://patient.info/forums/discuss/withdrawing-from-antidepressants-and-benzos-safely-485891?page=0#1809368