efexxor, anyone?

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Ann, I have been on Effexor for almost five years. I'm not using it for depression but rather for some obsessive-compulsive behavior. For instance, I would check and recheck (several times) the stove before I would leave the house. Fairly minor things like that. I would also worry about minor things but not big things. My psychiatrist felt that instead of worrying about my heart problems (like most heart patients might do), I transferred my worrying to the small things. I only take 75 mg. a day now. A very low dose. It does just enough to keep me from checking things or really worrying about little things. I've never had any side effects from it, and it really helps me. If I can answer anything else about using it, let me know. LINDA
 
Joe was on it for a VERY short time. The side effects listed possible high blood pressure. When I checked his pressure, it was something like 200 over 100+. He also had very strange dreams. I called his doc and got a regimen for getting him off it, since you cannot just stop it, so he was tapered off and another antidepressant was slowly added.

Even with that, he had MAJOR withdrawal problems, electric type shocks, and other weird stuff that lasted for a couple of weeks to a month, that were also mentioned in the drug information. Get the FULL prescribing sheet and read it thoroughly.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/uspdi/202764.html

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a694020.html

This drug is on Joe's bad drug list.
 
I was on it during a rough time in my life for depression. I took both the light and the dark effexor and thanks to pumphead I have no idea what dose is associated with each color! :rolleyes: Sorry! Side effects - I slowly started to gain weight on it and then if I would miss a dose or as I was coming off of it permanently, my head really really really buzzed BIG TIME. :eek: Very uncomfortable feeling. Lasted for weeks as I decreased amount. Was put on Welbutrin XL with no side effects at all!
Debbi
 
effexor

effexor

My husband has been on Effexor for 5 years and does well on it. If he didn't have this, we would be divorced due to his depression and compulsive behavior. He knows now that it is something he has to take. My daughter was on it for a while and really got sick when she went off of it. Felt terrible for a couple of weeks. I guess until it gets out of your system. I shouldn't say divorced but it would not be a happy household with him not taking it.
 
thanks, all. I really appreciate your responses. Nancy, I read your references very carefully and will keep all of it in mind. If I have any trouble with it I will discontinue or ask my dr what to do next. My sister has used it for quite a long time - she tried to get off it and went on something else, but had to go back to this.

I took Paxil for awhile when my dear Joe was passing. It certainly helped and when I was ready to stop, I did it very carefully.
 
Just my opinion but Effexor (and all the rest of the SSRIs and SNRIs) are not a good option with cardiac patient. Effexor is on the phase one of the Arizona Cert list for drugs that can prolong a persons QT interval. All the rest of the SSRIs and SNRIs have made it to other phases of the list for case reports that have occured and had to be reported in order to try to caution docs with the Arizona Cert but I think many docs do not have much education on QT so they ignore the info and these class of drugs have been the greatest medical scapegoat ever. So the point is if you have any concern toward your heart rhythm they are not a good idea. I watched a case of Paxil prolong a young womans QT to a dangerously high 430 before her Cardiologist caught it and was able to bring her gentally back down off of it before it did damage! That case report went directly to the FDA but the FDA has been a slow go on this issue. If there are other older meds for anxiety in the old benzo class to suite your needs, they are not dangerous in this area. But I have found myself trashing - throwing away, my older career do to the SSRI problem discoveries, lately. Another thing that is encouraged over the use of pyschotropic drugs is CB Therapy which has a higher success rate than psychotrophic meds alone.

Lisa
 
It is a measurment on an EKG that shows the hearts electrical ventricular activity along with the QRS complex measurement. They should use a QTc (the c stands for corrected) reading when calculating it to see if a drug you are using is doing any harm to your hearts electronics. In women the QTc should not go past 430 and actually 420 is getting a bit high. If a drug harms your hearts electronics then you will be at risk for some bad heart rhythms and worse. Effexor has more potential to do this to a person than Paxil but Paxil can and has done it. Prozac also has some bad reports. Doctors have been encouraged to learn about this but they are resistant, when they could be preventing some bad heart rhythms they cause to people with drugs they perscribe by simply doing routine EKGs on people that they have on risky drugs. Another good example of this is Erythromycin and it is not a psychotrophic med it is an antibotic. Here is a medical definition.

The Q-T interval represents the time for both ventricular depolarization and repolarization to occur, and therefore roughly estimates the duration of an average ventricular action potential. This interval can range from 0.2 to 0.4 seconds depending upon heart rate. At high heart rates, ventricular action potentials shorten in duration, which decreases the Q-T interval. Because prolonged Q-T intervals can be diagnostic for susceptibility to certain types of tachyarrhythmias, it is important to determine if a given Q-T interval is excessively long. In practice, the Q-T interval is expressed as a "corrected Q-T (QTc)" by taking the Q-T interval and dividing it by the square root of the R-R interval (interval between ventricular depolarizations). This allows an assessment of the Q-T interval that is independent of heart rate. Normal corrected Q-Tc intervals are less than 0.44 seconds.

Lisa
 
I havebeen takingefexxor since about6 mos. before my second surgerymy doc increased it to 300 mg. the last tim terI am actuallyfeeling better now and I actually wentto sleep at2:30 AM last night instead of my usual 6 AM.


Lettitia
 
efexxor

efexxor

I was on this drug couple of summer ago and it made me take twice as much coumdin. Then when it was stopped my INR went up to 39.9. My dr. told me that there was no data on this happening to anyone. But leave to me to be the abnormal in the bunch
 
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