EFFEXOR XR Reviews (VENLAFAXINE HYDROCHLORIDE)Average Rating: 3.0 (2225 Ratings)Filter ResultsCompare EFFEXOR XR with similar:
Type: Rx Drug
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Results are sorted by Gender with females listed first (reviews with no gender reported listed before females). Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.) Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 |
More on EFFEXOR XR: Reviews Summary | Drug Safety Information
| RATING | REASON | SIDE EFFECTS FOR EFFEXOR XR | COMMENTS | SEX | AGE | DURATION/ DOSAGE | DATE ADDED |
| 3 | mild depression | I had dry mouth at first but that stopped after a few weeks. Weight loss in the beginning because of no appetite but that was good because in February I had to have a 4th stent in a heart artery so the weight coming off was a plus. Sex? Ha! Non-existant! My wife is on Celexa so we are "some partying couple!!!” I have been on it for at least 5 months this time at 225mg per day (150mg morning/75mg afternoon). It has helped ease the depression but I am still at a stage where I don't feel like doing anything and have trouble thinking with accompanying memory loss problems<<<< | If I had a choice, I would like to be off of it because of one obvious side effect but I am afraid of the depression coming back as it has before. I sleep ok but I take 2.5mg of Xanax at night to help. So, all in all, the medicine has worked to a point. Maybe I am expecting too much from it. In retrospect, I think I have had a lifetime of depressive episodes with anxiety and irritability. I just never got any help until 1994. Childhood trauma, I'm sure, has something to do with it all. Everyone is different with these types of meds so for me Effexor XR is just OK, not a miracle but certainly a help. | M | 59 | 5 months | 4/21/2008 | 3 | depression, anxiety | weight gain, sexual dysfunction, nausea | My doctor said that Effexor would be the best drug for me since it is made to help depression and anxiety, both of which I have. It didn't help my anxiety at all but I definitely felt less depressed while on it. It almost made me feel like a care-free kid again. However, I gained 25 pounds on it and this just fueled my depression even more since I was close to being overweight before going on it. Going off it was hell too. I got the "brain zaps" that other people have mentioned. I also just felt like crap for days. I definitely don't think the good outweighs the bad. I wouldn't recommend it. | M | 21 | 3 months | 2/13/2009 | 3 | Depression | At various times throughout the 18 months I was on it I had them all, I guess. I had weight gain (20lbs), night sweats, extreme drowsiness coming on suddenly without warning, flat emotions - didn't care about anything, not even when my Mom had to have major back surgery, tinitus, vivid dreams, gas, and nausea and dizziness if I missed a dose by even an hour or two. Didn't notice any sexual problems, though. Guess I was lucky there... | This drug worked pretty well to stop my depression. For me it just sorta numbed me out so I stopped caring about the stuff that bothered me. In the end I found the side effects were just too bothersome. After 18 months I weaned myself off of it very slowly. Well, believe me when I say that the withdrawal symptoms are no joke. I would NEVER have taken this drug if I'd known just how awful you feel after stopping. | M | 38 | 18 months | 5/2/2008 | 3 | anxiety | Brainzaps if I missed a day followed by intense headaches. After taking the medicine for a month, the night sweats started and so did the very vivid dreams. Also struggle with a lack of focus and detail to things around me. | The drug did help with my anxiety and brief bout of depression. I have taken the 75mg for a year now and I'm switching medication to lexapro. Effexor xr has too many things wrong with it and the bad outways the good! Oh by the way, if you are reading this to help you decide to take this medicine.....DON'T TAKE IT! Ask your doctor for a safer alternative. | M | 36 | 1 years | 7/1/2008 | 3 | Anxiety | Delayed ejaculation, increased anxiety whilst starting the meds. | Effexor(150mg)did help me with a bout of anxiety/panic which was causing me to be depressed. I noticed(after coming off it) that my emotions were blunted. Nothing really mattered. I was scared to try and ween off it but I pushed myself to do it. It took me about one month to totally ween off Effexor. Withdrawals were pretty bad at first but it eventually got better. I remember one Sunday when I felt like complete shit; flu like symptoms and terrible head spinning. Oh, and a few pretty freaky dreams. BUT IT GOT BETTER is my point.I feel great now that I've been off it a month. I hope to encourage anyone who is trying to get off Effexor to STICK IT OUT! | M | 34 | 1 years | 8/27/2009 | 3 | this drug causes dependency. the withdrawal side effects include hallucinations. it is an effective antidepressant though. | M | 35 | 5 years | 8/31/2009 | 3 | Depression | Horrible sexual side affects. Had the jitters, although I kinda liked the energy. Had episodes of rage once in a while. I knew withdrawls were expected which include dizziness and "brain flashes". | You really have to try this like others to see if it is right for you. | M | 35 | 2 years | 8/4/2009 | 3 | Depression & Social Anxiety | Initially: Erectile Dysfunction, Decreased Cognitive Ability, Memory Issues, Sudden Weight Gain, Horrific Withdrawal Symptoms (vertigo, spinning room, nausea, light and movement sensitivity... lasted 2 weeks, was bed ridden) | This medication is an effective anti-depressant. You can expect to have a 2-3 month lead in with annoying side effects. Every dose increase will bring those side effects back. Once my body had adjusted, all the side effects left me, and my mood was balanced and lifted. My social anxiety did not improve, but I believe I have a dopamine deficiency. Expect to be off work if you are coming off this medication. DO NOT miss a dose, DO NOT discontinue without speaking to your doctor and reducing doses slowly. You will regret it if you don't. Make sure this is something you want to take long term, as it is something you do not want to start and stop. | M | 26 | 12 months 150 mg 1X day | 5/16/2013 | 3 | Depression | Lethargic, shaky, dizziness, gout | It helped get me out of a severe depression but I want to stop | M | 53 | 5 days | 6/6/2008 | 3 | Depression, Anxiety | The withdraws of this medicine are terrible. Complete lethargic feeling, violent mood swings, anger, and sleepiness. During withdraws it felt like I was completely wasted on alcohol and I was scared to drive a car. This drug really did nothing for me. It made me feel exactly the same as I did before, even after doubling the dosage. I had some mild mood swings, I cried a lot, and had very little motivation to do anything at all. I had a loss of appetite on the drug (some days I would not even think about eating until 2 or 3 in the afternoon. | The one positive of this drug was that I lost 25 lbs in 8 weeks, but I do not know if that had to do with the med or if it was a change in my diet. I also found that at first I had trouble having an orgasm, but after a few weeks, orgasms were really intense and amazing. These were really the only positives. | M | 22 | 2 years | 5/6/2009 | 3 | GAD & derealization | no sexual interest, weight gain, fatigue, cant get off of it | Works OK for my anxiety but not really for depression. I rate it 3 out of 5 | M | 30 | 2 years | 6/5/2009 | 3 | depression | initial lightheaded-ness that went away after a few weeks, excessive sweating, sedation at higher doses. IMPORTANT: severe alcohol cravings | i have to be fair and give this medicine a 3, because it has been an effective (lol) antidepressant with relatively few side effects, though one side effect was particularly damaging: increasingly dangerous alcoholism. i have intoxicated with many different recreational drugs since i was 16, but excessive drinking was never my thing. until effexor. over time, my alcoholism became rampant, i would binge absurd amounts of alcohol every few days and go into a manic frenzy, hardly feeling drunk more like superhuman. my therapist and psychiatrist know i have a drinking problem, yet effexor was never identified as being a contributing factor. i had to find that out on my own, browsing online message boards and coming across a myriad of people with the EXACT SAME PROBLEM. search "effexor and alcoholism". i lost a job, a great relationship, and a few close friendships over my inability to control my drinking. i'm not totally without personal blame, but i urge anyone who suspects they are experiencing something similar to not let it get out of hand. bring it up with your doctor and try a different medicine- it's not worth it. i've been decreasing my dose over the past weeks and already i've had a few nights where before i would've stocked up on beer, and i passed it up. i'm furious that no health care professional was able to see the connection. i really hope someone sees this review who might need to know this information. | M | 23 | 1.5 years 150mg 1X day | 7/21/2014 | 3 | Depression-Anxiety | severe sleep disturbances, abnormal ejaculation, anorexia | This drug helped me for a while, it is powerful and addictive, and its half life is short, thus weaning yourself from it is an agony. withdrawal symptoms are so bad and unbearable. when deciding to cut off, Taper as far as you can. | M | 30 | 6 years 225 1X day | 9/10/2014 | 3 | depression and anxiety | Complete loss of sex drive. Unable to maintain an erection. Dry mouth and constant "clinching" of my leg muscles. It's driving me nuts | The med did help significantly with my depression and anxiety, but the side effects outweigh the benefit of the drug. Dr prescribed 300mg of Welbutrin in addition to the Effexor to offset the side effects. No improvements. Just jumpy now. | M | 41 | 2 months 150 1X day | 9/17/2013 | 3 | mild depression, anxiety and fibrom | Erectile dysfunction, delayed ejaculation, abnormal dreams, can't stay asleep,forgetting to eat, extreme nausea, headaches and reoccurence of ocular migraines. | Intially worked great for pain. Still works for the other two. Thought most side effects would be gone. Instead most seem to be getting worse. | M | 60 | 3 months 300 mg | 4/8/2016 | 3 | Anxiety | Increased urination, weight gain, heart arrythmias, stomach cramps, constipation. That wonderful vertigo/dizzy feel that increased as the dose went up. A brutal, brutal drug to wean off! | Initial dose of 37.5mg worked fine from about day 3 but as time increased so the dosage went up, 37.5>75>112.5> 150>225 so did the side effects after 75mg was reached. A shaky feeling along with vision problems and a spacey 'in another world' feeling. The desire to do things that I regained after 6 years of being locked in a vacuum didn't diminish, the problem was not being able to clearly see what I was trying to achieve, eyesight was blurry and foggy. Anxiety was always there but Efexor did control it for the most part. As the dose increased to 150 mg then 225 mg the stomach cramps and abdomen pain increased to the point I'd had enough and doctor decided a switch of drug and class of drug was required. So I'm now on Prozac and after the obligatory time for antidepressants to work or not I'll see if this one's any better. | M | 66 | 6 months 225 MG 1X day | 8/5/2018 | 3 | Depressed | Am taking 150 mg of sertraline.still depressed. | M | 71 | 10 years 225 | 12/29/2018 | 3 | severe depression | Mood swings. Severe at times, but might be because of severe depression disorder. | In conjunction with seroquel, I felt very apathetic about everything. Although the depression deminished, nothing really mattered. | M | 21 | 5 months | 1/21/2005 | 3 | Fibromyalgia | Slight acne, strange/vivid dreams, some light headedness/dizziness, weakness, loss of appetite, dry mouth, tightness in chest, sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, 2 or 3 mild anxiety attacks, tingles, slightly blurred vision, somewhat of a euphoric sensation so I had to be careful when driving. None of which was that bad. But then after 10 days on medication I couldn't reach orgasm any more. The worst part was I was even more frisky than usual. | Started taking 37.5 for 7 days and then went to 75 for 9 more days. Experienced many SX in the first 10 days but nothing that bad especially since it really helped with my muscle pain. However on day 10 the equipment stopped working. Couldn't have an orgasm even though I was more horny than usual. :( I toughed it out for another 6 days hoping things would change but they didn't. I decided I'd rather take the pain than have the equipment not work. I was really worried about withdrawal but had only minor symptoms( e.g. slight headache for a day or 2 ). Tightness in chest could have been a bigger problem( i.e. persistent hypertension ) but I was able to relax into it after a few days of meditation for 1-2 hours a day. I was able to sense/feel what the drug did and after coming off of it I was able replicate some of its effects with meditation. Great drug except for sexual SX. | M | 33 | 16 days | 1/30/2005 | 3 | depression | running in sleep, sleep disruption, periods of mania, dryness | good results with 150mg for 90 days; tried 225mg next 90 days with no appreciable benefit; reduced to 150mg; drastic mood swings during transition; bigest perceived benefit in first 45 days | M | 41 | 9 months | 1/4/2005 |