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Getting Side Effects After Taking Venlafaxine 75 Mg And Zoloft 50 Mg. How Long Should I Continue This Medicine?

Posted on Fri, 31 Aug 2012

Question: I took Venlafaxine 75 mg/day for 6 weeks. But I had side-effects, so my doctor put me on Sertraline (Zoloft) 50 mg. I'm cross-tapering, so for 6 days I've now been taking Venlafaxine 37.5, and I am now for 2 days taking Sertraline 25 mg. How much longer should I take the 37.5 Venlafaxine? And when can I go from 25 mg Sertraline to 50 mg?

Answered by Dr. Sourav Ganguly (1 hour later)

Hi,

Thanks for your query.

Venlafaxine can be stopped from the dose of 37.5 mg in 2-4 weeks time.

In such cases, I usually follow the below protocol among my patients:
1. Continue venlafaxine 37.5mg and sertraline 25 mg for another 7 days.
2. After one week if they feel better, stop venlafaxine and increase sertraline to 50mg dose. Else, I would ask them to continue venlafaxine for another 2 weeks and increased sertraline to 50mg.
3. Venlafaxine can be stopped gradually over 4 weeks time and sertraline may be increased 12.5mg every 2 weeks.

Please discuss with your current treating doctor. He/she can modify and personalize the tapering schedule as per your requirement.

Hope I have answered your query. If you have any further questions I will be happy to help.

Wish you a speedy recovery.

Best Wishes,
Dr Sourav Ganguly

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad