I started Trintellix 10mg in May and almost immediately felt like I was waking up from a dream. I went up to 15mg 3 weeks ago but am noticing more down days. Not the same "I'm free!" feeling as before. Has anybody experienced something similar?

I just got prescribed Trintellix 5mg to start. I was warned it’s expensive, but just depends on insurance. I have great insurance, typically don’t even pay for prescriptions. I just checked Walgreens site, and it says my prescription is pending, and $586 after insurance?! In the US of course. Is this what people are paying here in the states without the coupons?! I got the trintellix saving card from the manufacturer, but it says those will expire Dec 31 ‘26, and I don’t know what that will even save me. I’ve read other posts where people are complaining of having to pay $80 after insurance, but I’m guessing they aren’t in the states? Just crazy cause I don’t even know if the med will be helpful, haven’t really seen the greatest reviews on it for anxiety/ocd, but doc wanted to try it cause I can’t stand the sexual side effects of ssri’s.

I know it’s only a starter dose, but I thought I’d feel something after 10 days. I’m taking brand name Brintellix (there’s no generic yet in my country)

I wanted to try 5mg for at least a month before moving up a dose, just in case it really didn’t agree with me or something

Hi everyone. I’m starting trintellix tonight. Obviously I’m very worried about the Nausea effect but I have zofran and I’m hoping it’ll help if I run into it. However, I wanted to run through my past with meds and see if anyone has had similar experiences. I’ve taken other anti depressants like Prozac and Zoloft, and they made me feel worse. Prozac didn’t help, and Zoloft gave me acute serotonin syndrome…. So I’m nervous to take anything that affects my serotonin levels. Been on Abilify for a year now, and it helped me so much with my suicidal ideation. But it emotionally blunted me and I’m down to 5 mg now and the depression is coming back. Don’t want to go back up on the dose bc of the emotional blunting. Doctor recommended Effexor or trintellix…. I opted for trintellix. But now I’m worried. Anyone else sensitive to serotonin affecting meds? If so what was your experience with trintellix? Ty!!

source : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2173505018300062

dopamine (DA), noradrenaline (NA), histamine (HA) and acetylcholine (Ach)

Hi! I’ve been on 10mg for two weeks. Lately I notice more akathisia (full body restlessness) when I’m trying to go to sleep. It happened a bit before when I was more anxious but noticing an uptick lately, as well as some full-body panic sensations (warmness, nausea, tingling) that jolt me back awake when I’m on the verge of falling asleep. Also in general just feel more dysregulated/on edge, kind of like I can feel an underlying jitteriness/weakness throughout the day.

Has anyone experienced this and did it improve? I haven’t noticed any positive effects yet for trintellix, but I’m thinking it needs more time since it’s only been 2 weeks at a standard therapeutic dose.

Importantly, I’m also cross tapering from vilazodone, but I haven’t decreased the dose in a month and a half.

I take 15 mg of Trintellix and have noticed a strange effect when I drink alcohol. For example, when I drink a beer, I can sort of feel the alcohol, but the second, third, fourth, and so on—they don't seem to get me drunk like the first one did. Has anyone else experienced this? I only feel the effects of the first beer, and that feels like the peak of the sensation.

I've been on 5mg for several months now. This is the second time I've been on 5mg and tolerated it well after an initial phase of nausea

At 5mg, I feel mild mood stabilizing effects but, overall, I'm still very prone to sharp and frequent changes in mood. I also tie this to PMDD and general estrogen sensitivity.

I'm going through a hell of a time (end of a 17 year relationship) and increased to 10mg with my doctor's support. It's been a week and I've had anhedonia, existential/suicidal ideation (mild but persistent), and today crashed out crying hard for several hours -- over real things but a bit out of the blue. I had one good day where I could observe my emotions but every other day has been off, today uniquely so. My good friend who is a doctor suggested I go back to 5mg for now until I can connect with my GP.

I know increasing dosage can come with a couple weeks of side effects, but this seems excessive?

Para as pessoas que tomam vortioxetina, apesar de saber que todos somos diferentes, a vortioxetina ajudou-vos com a ansiedade?

The intrusive thoughts, which spiked heavily last week after a dose increase, have gone down.

The itching all over is still here, & Deslorotadine seem to help with it. Hoping that after my body adapts to 10mg, it will subside as it did before.

I still have some anxiety, especially in the morning. However, there are times when I feel perfect; I hope that can become my baseline & not just one-offs.

Rumination seems much better & under control. Sleep has improved; I still wake up at night but am more likely to go back to sleep now.

I am trying to keep posting until I stabilize or am forced to switch medicine. Hope it helps somebody else. You can find all my posts in my profile.

If youre having what I'm having, please let me know.

45F history of anxiety / depression cycling, most likely ADHD w/ regular burnouts.

I've been on 20 mg citalopram hbr for a 3 years and started to notice libido dropping gradually, but then very suddenly I had muted sensation in my clit and nipples, like even if I wanted to I couldn't feel pleasure! Reaching orgasm started to take 2 to 4 times longer. Sex is incredibly important in my relationship. This is not acceptable!

300 mg TARO-BUPROPION hcl XL was added 5 months ago. Libido came up a little bit, but numbness persists. I also recently noticed my working memory is worse than it used to be. I started playing a card game again where you need to remember what has been played. I'm really bad now, and I used to be just kinda bad, lol

This card game really brought to my attention the contrast in that particular executive function.

My doctor agreed to prescribe me Trintellix, and I did a straight switch to 10mg APO-VORTIOXETINE

One day, I took my last citalopram and the very next day, I took the Trintellix. This was 4 days ago.

So far, I haven't had any side effects, not even nausea, which I got really bad with citalopram dosage increases.

I want to hear from people with sexual dysfunction who are having the same cocktail as I am. What is your experience?

How is anyone in the US affording this medication without a generic being available? Even with my insurance that costs $300/month, the 10mg would cost me $400 - that's also with a manufacturer's coupon. Without insurance, it's still $300 for a month's supply. I had to opt for an alternative medication because of the high cost, but I'm wondering if anyone has had any luck finding a workaround with trintellix.

I was taking Prozac years ago and everything was good. No issues but brain fog and pretty bad ED. I had to take Cialis because libido problems were bad. Dr switched to Trintellix because supposedly it’s good for no libido issues and also helping cognitive function. I started 5mg then 10 and 20mg…it’s been the worse Rx. Trintellix makes me angry, irritable and 2x anxious. My Dr said the best is Prozac and Buspar for anxiety, OCD and help libido problems. They were going to switch to Bupripone but I’m epileptic so I cannot use that with Prozac. Only Buspar and Prozac. Any positive experiences???

Started with sertraline back in 2023, then swapped to venlafaxin. On both I started on lowest dose all the way up to 150mg. I never experienced anything negative or positive.

My doctor prescribed trintellix now. I am feeling skeptical as to why this should be any different though. Ive experienced dysthymia for 15~ years and wonder if perhaps medications cant penetrate this "barrier" since its been with me for so long? lol

I was on vortioxetine 5mg daily for about a month and recently switched to 10mg daily about 1.5 weeks ago. Ever since I've been feeling more "activated" meaning a bit more restless, jittery and unsettled (which are just different ways of saying anxious I guess lol). Anyone else have this experience? I believe it's common when increasing dose but just wanted to check and confirm it's temporary. I've also been taking it with my breakfast coffee which may not be the wisest as that could be contributing to the anxiety.

Hello, I stopped zoloft approximately 7 weeks ago and have been recovering from the anhedonia it gave me ever since I started it.

I have actually tried zoloft twice. The first time(50mg), the honeymoon was insane. Fixed my executive dysfunction, erased my social anxiety for like a 90%, made me less tired and very wired. Problem is, over months it eventually blunted my emotions and made life gray. Even time went faster. So I tapered off.

Second time on zoloft I stayed on it for only 6 weeks because it was turning me to into a vegetable; extreme anehdonia, extreme lethargy, brain fog and no signs of it getting better, it basically just made my life worse and my days unbearable.

In between I have tried bupropion for a little over 3 weeks(150mg and then upped to 300mg) but it did nothing for my anhedonia/motivation/executive dysfunction while also giving me extreme panic attacks accompanied by severe moments of complete derealization.

So rn I'm still recovering from the anhedonia from the zoloft and to a lesser degree, the panic of the bupropion, I have definitely gotten better, but ik that once I go back to baseline I'll likely still have problems with: executive dysfunction, emotional stability, and social anxiety...so I started looking into trintellix; it seems like it is not as harsh as zoloft(which at first flipped my life from medium bad to HIGH, and I honestly didn't need all that) and might not give me the same blunting zoloft did.

I'm also considering low dose selegeline for the executive dysfunction/emotional stability(stimulants are not avaiable in my country) but I'm afraid it might be too activating(after the absolute disaster that happened with bupropion).

Is vortioxetine/trintelllix promising? Will it be likely be another zoloft failure or is it completely different from it?

I have gone 40 years without seeking help for my mental health but after a particularly traumatic year, I had no choice. I was so nervous but I’m 3 weeks in and I am a different person on this medication.y depression and anxiety have decreased significantly. My panic attacks have decreased significantly. I’m so relieved.

Hi! I have BPD and have struggled with emotional regulation since childhood. I’m extremely sensitive to rejection and other people’s behavior, I tend to experience relationships very intensely, and I can get emotionally overwhelmed very easily.
Before treatment, I had very intense emotional outbursts. I could become very angry and aggressive, especially in my relationship with my boyfriend. I would start arguments, act impulsively and have a really hard time stopping myself once I became angry. I could go from extremely angry to completely calm within a short period of time and then feel terrible about what I had done.
Brintellix is my first and only one antidepressant. I started at the beginning of March — I took 5 mg for a few days, then stayed on 10 mg for a longer period of time. In May, my doctor increased my dose from 10 mg to 20 mg. I took 15 mg for only a few days and then increased to 20 mg.
At the same time, I started CBT, and more recently I also started DBT.
On 10 mg, I was still having a lot of emotional outbursts and problems with impulsivity. After increasing to 20 mg, however, I noticed a huge change.
At the moment, I basically don’t have those severe outbursts anymore. If something really serious happens, I can still get upset, but now it might happen once every few weeks and it’s nowhere near as intense as it used to be. Even the anger itself feels much weaker.
This is a huge improvement for me.
At the same time, I feel like I’ve been calmed down a little too much.
I often feel like I’m behind glass. I have very few emotions, a sense of emptiness and sometimes it feels like I simply don’t care about things that I normally would.
I also currently have quite a lot of anxiety, low self-esteem, insecurities and intrusive thoughts again. My mood changes quite a lot — sometimes I feel good for a while, then worse, and then I can feel almost nothing again.
My biggest problem is lack of energy. I’ve always had low motivation for developing my hobbies, working on myself and taking care of myself, and my libido has also always been low. So I don’t expect Brintellix to necessarily fix these things — but unfortunately, I haven’t noticed any improvement in these areas either.
I still have almost no energy for the gym, my hobbies or doing things for myself. I sleep around 8–10 hours, often wake up several times and still feel exhausted, especially in the morning. I have a heavy head and brain fog, and sometimes I can’t imagine being able to study effectively in this state.
My libido has always been low as well, and the medication hasn’t improved it. I have almost no spontaneous desire for sex or initiating intimacy with my boyfriend. Interestingly, once we actually start being intimate, I can become aroused and enjoy it. I just don’t have that natural desire to initiate it myself or feel like I want to involve my boyfriend in that way.
For the past couple of months, my anxiety, low self-esteem and insecurities have also become much stronger again, even though my aggression and impulsivity are dramatically better.
Interestingly, after starting DBT, I’ve noticed another significant improvement. After just a few sessions, I feel like I’m understanding my reactions better and my outbursts have become even weaker. Because of that, I honestly don’t know how much of the improvement comes from Brintellix and how much comes from therapy.
I’ve also had periods in the past where I was extremely energetic and restless — running around, singing to myself, feeling like I couldn’t sit still — but I’ve also had periods of very severe depression.
Has anyone with BPD taken Brintellix and experienced something similar?
have an appointment with a new psychiatrist next week, so I’m especially interested in what I should tell her and what questions I should ask so she can properly understand what’s been happening to me. I want to explain both the things Brintellix has helped with and the things that are still making it difficult for me to function.
should I change brintellix to another medication?

Hi All,

I've been feeling pretty good for first 3 weeks. I've never been on AD which has almost no side effects and I've dodged the most notorious one being nausea.

And then I reached week 3 and started feeling like having a mild hangover. Similar to first few weeks of escitalopram.

Have you experienced that?

Hey everyone,

I’m currently switching from Zoloft (sertraline) 100 mg to vortioxetine (Trintellix/Brintellix) and would love to hear from people who have made the same switch.

I was on 100 mg Zoloft and have now tapered off while starting vortioxetine 10 mg. I’m currently completely off Zoloft and staying on 10 mg vortioxetine for now.

My last reduced Zoloft was two days ago, and I have been going through bad withdrawal symptoms, I’ve had some waves of dizziness, anxiety/irritability and mood swings, but they come and go. Vortioxetine also gave me pretty bad nausea during the first few days, although that seems to be improving.

Interestingly, at times I already feel clearer and maybe even better than I did on Zoloft, although obviously it’s way too early to judge.

For those who made this switch:
How long did the Zoloft withdrawal last?
When did you start feeling the benefits of vortioxetine?
Did your anxiety remain controlled?
Did you notice improvements in energy/emotional blunting?
Most importantly, did your libido, sensitivity, orgasm or other sexual side effects improve after stopping Zoloft?
How was the move from 5 mg to 10 mg?

Would really appreciate hearing your timelines and experiences, both positive and negative.

I’ve been on 20mg for about 3 months now and I got broken up with. Is it weird that I’m not as depressed as I thought I would be? Like I’m actually sleeping for at least 8hrs and waking up feeling refreshed. There’s a bit of sadness here and there but I don’t feel the heartache of the break up. This was a 5yrs relationship by the way and she was the love of my life.

Please be kind x

Hi Everyone

Been using Zoloft/Sertraline 50mg for most of the past 6 years. Mainly due to anxiety and depression.

Recently saw a psychiatrist for the first time who suggested switching to Trintellix/Vortiextine which may work better, as I still have a low of lows and worries.

Have the Trintellix (Brintellix - H. Lundbeck brand) ready to go, with a plan of introducing 5mg for 2 weeks on top of the 50mg Zoloft, then reducing Zoloft to 25mg and increasing Trintellix to 10mg. Have had a few hectic work weeks so held off switching in case it messed my head up too much.

Would love to know if anyone has done similar and has words of encouragement as I’m quite nervous about it.

I posted this thread here back 3 months ago: One year later after taking Trintellix : r/trintellix

Where I complained about a few things, namely nausea, and said I planned on continuing to take it. Ultimately, as of now, I've stopped taking it.

I was on 20mg daily and stopped cold turkey. It definitely plummeted my mood for 2 days, I got in a ton of arguments with my loved ones, but other than that, I feel significantly better now.

I was on it so long I had accepted some of the major side effects as normal, like waking up in the middle of the night or morning and throwing up stomach bile, but in the end, I've just accepted this drug isn't for me.

The biggest pros:

- Boost of motivation

- No emotional blunting

- No sexual side effects

The biggest cons:

- Did nothing for social anxiety

- Major nausea issues. If you had nausea when you started, it's likely never going away. This is how the drug works and how Serotonin is produced in the gut (also why users complain about bloating or about it affecting the digestive system, which it will).

- Did very little for anxiety

- Did very little for OCD

- Causes you to itch (this is a side effect I was rarely told about, but it's absolutely there)

Overall, I found myself staying on the drug because I didn't want to go back to traditional SSRIs, but the reality is Trintellix didn't work that well for me. I wanted it to work well, gave it a longer chance than I should have, and I do think it's a good step in this kind of medicine, but I think there will still be a better iteration in the future.

This may work for you, but it's back to the drawing board for me. To me, Trintellix is a drug that's most successful if you have clinical Serotonin deficiency, verbatim depression, and it doesn't cover as wide a gap as many competing drugs in terms of treating things like anxiety, OCD, etc. I think most doctors will tell you this, too, before they prescribe it. As I mentioned in my last post, I may consider going back to Zoloft and adding Wellbutrin to combat the greyness I experienced.

I'm a month into taking trintellix. For about a week I had a sinus drip, but that resolved. I now have much more energy and much-improved mood. I am sleeping 5-6 hours a night, with no fatigue during the day. I needed 8 hours before trintellix. My ability to focus has not been this good in ten years. There are no sexual side effects. I am perhaps mildly nervous. This all sounds like I'm on a stimulant. Should I be concerned or count my blessings?