Desvenlafaxine is a SNRI which presents low affinity for muscarinic, H1 and α1 in vitro receptors and a marginal hepatic metabolism. Different studies have shown effectiveness and a favorable tolerability profile, but only a few of them have been realized independently.

To study the incidence and characteristics of short-term desvenlafaxine side effects (SE) in daily clinical practice.

A total of 123 patients with recently introduced desvenlafaxine treatment are recruited from Barakaldo and Uribe-Kosta Mental Health Centers, and UKU scale is administered to measure SE. Descriptive data are calculated using SPSS v.22.

SE are observed in 30.09%. Among these, 5.69% experimented improvement or disappearance of SE with dose reduction, whereas 16.26% had to stop DVF treatment. The most frequent SE was nausea/vomiting (7.3%), followed by dry mouth (4.9%), blurred vision (4.9%), tachycardia (4.1%), sexual SE (4.1%) and tension/inner unrest (4.1%). Among the patients with anxiety disorders, 27.78% present SE versus 30.47% of patients with other diagnoses.

The characteristics of SE with DVF in daily clinical practice are comparable to those found in previous studies, and the overall profile is more benign than other AD. Aspects such as gender and sexual function must be considered. In patients with anxious symptoms DVF is also effective and ES are presented similarly, opening a new line of research and treatment of conditions with these characteristics.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.