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 |
| 2 | GAD/Panic Disorder | Nausea, Heavy Stomach, Vivid Dreams, Loss of Libido, Loss of Appetite, Upset stomach, Vomiting, Pounding Heart, Losing weight, Lack of sleep, Fatigue. | I can't give a long-term review of this medication because I'm on my 7th day and I'm about to up my dosage from 37.5 to 75 tomorrow. Ever since I started Effexor, I've been experiencing a dramatic loss in appetite. I wake up in the morning feeling completely fine and then within an hour my heart starts to beat faster and my stomach gets heavy. I have to force myself to eat small bites of food at a time which sometimes makes me vomit. The whole point of me taking this medication is to relieve myself of these symptoms which are put on by anxiety. I now have no reason to continue Effexor if I have to live with these symptoms on a daily bases. I never had depression, but because I feel sick and useless all the time, I now do. I have to admit, however, that I do enjoy the vivid dreams. I woke up yesterday morning with a pretty good idea for a gorey/slasher/cannobolism film. | M | 22 | 7 days | 8/20/2006 | 2 | Anxiety | HEADACHES! | M | 35 | 2 months | 1/9/2006 | 2 | Anxiety and mild depression | My doctor is getting me started with Effexor XR very slowly. She gave me the usual sample pack containing a weeks supply of 37.5mg capsules and a weeks worth of 75mg capsules BUT also gave me 3 more 7 day strips of the 37.5mg. She told me to take 37.5 mg a day for 3 weeks and then move up to the 75. I am currently on week 2 of the 37.5mg. After only a couple of days I noticed jaw clenching, sharp electric pains in my eyes, constipation, problems with thermoregulation, night sweats, vivid dreams, a waning libido, and inability to achieve orgasm. My depression and anxiety are usualy pretty mild, so these side effects are not worth what little good this medication can offer. Also, after very recent blood tests, we discovered that my testosterone and other hormonal levels are low/off, which is more than likely the reason why I was having symptoms of depression, listlessness, and lack of interest in life. My doctor has already mentioned taking me off of Effexor and focusing on the real prob | After reading other people's comments about discontinuing the use of Effexor, I have to say that I am a bit scared. I have enough problems without having to go through this as well. I just think that in so many cases Doctors are eager to jump the gun and tell their patients that they are depressed or anxious when there could be other problems going on that they don't even consider. If you are a guy, even a young guy, and suffer from mild to moderate depression, by all means, have your hormones/testosterone checked out. Do some research on testicular hypofunction and or hypothalamus dysfunction. It could be worth it. | M | 28 | 2 weeks | 8/23/2006 | 2 | fatigue, body tensions,anxiete | killing libido | I had really bad withdrawal effects, than went back to normal dose (150 g) and started taking off 10 grains of drug every day. I had to open it every day and count the grains. No withdrawal effect any more with this method. Sorry for my English | M | 41 | 3 days | 3/24/2007 | 2 | anxiety and depression | My first language is not english so bear with my spell. When I whent fron efexor xr 75 to 150 inmeditely i start feeling very warm in the stomag and sleppless in about three weeks after I en up in the emmergency room with 57 of hemoglobin concentration out of 135 they have to give me 4 bags of blood and I stayed there for three days, during those days I did not take the efexor but on the fourth day when I came out of the hospital I was feeling very dizzy so I took the efexor again with food in the morning and later I eat two kiwis and I felt so much pain in the ulcer caused by efexor that I had to drink a lot of milk to calm down the horrible pain. Today I have'nt take it and I eat somethin spicy and greasy and my stomag just blouwed but no pain, I have never had stomacal problems prior to efexor until now so I am goin to stop taking it but taping it down I let you know how I recover from my ulcer and the other side effects | Sleepiness Dizziness Constipation Raised blood pressure Fatigue | M | 45 | 75 days | 12/13/2006 | 2 | depression | did not mix with other meds, weird feeling in head | M | 55 | 4 months 20 1X day | 4/28/2012 | 2 | Depression, generalized anxiety | Weight gain. Reduced mental clarity. Heightened emotions. Suicidal thoughts. Withdrawal is a btch. I was on 225 mg for a long time and then tapered down to 37.5 mg. Reason I'm writing this review today is that I was without medicine for 2.5 days and I'm in a dark and uncomfortable place. I ended up in ER twice because of Effexor withdrawal in the past. | It may work short term but doctors need to be more careful in the cost-benefit analysis of this medicine. Also, in the event of misdiagnosis (as it was in my case), if you write this drug for a patient who is actually bi-polar, you'll intensify the manias (when most of the suicides etc. occur). | M | 31 | 3 years 37.5 1X day | 2/14/2013 | 2 | anxiety | burning joint pain - no interest in anything anymore | Did work for anxiety, but at a very steep price - severe joint pain and lack of interest in anything once enjoyed. Very difficult to get off of at the end - must taper very carefully. | M | 40 | 6 months | 1/26/2010 | 2 | shaking, withdrawal symptoms | I have used brand named for many years. If I missed a dose in the early morning, withdrawal effects would not show up until late afternoon. With generic, withdrawal effects will show up by 10:30 in the morning. | M | 43 | 7 years 1X day | 8/1/2010 | 2 | Anxiety/Depression | There are no side effects from taking it -- but HORRENDOUS side effects from discontinuation. | I've been trying to discontinue (slowly, by lowering dosage) for about 7 months now. The withdrawal is ridiculous. If I could go back and time and never take it I would in a heartbeat. | M | 25 | 7 years 150 1X day | 8/10/2010 | 2 | Depression/Anxiety | Sexual appetite depleted, mood swings, nausea, and slept all day. Helped w/ depression but not my anxiety too much. | After getting off XR--6 years later I am still experiencing some of the side effects. Mainly night terrors, hallucination, and dizzy spells after I awake from a night terror or bad dream. I can't recommend this drug. | M | 31 | 2 years 75mg 2X day | 12/14/2010 | 2 | bipolar ii + depression/anxiety | intense increase in anxiety and agitation | seems that effexor caused an episode of hypomania with extreme anxiety resulting in increased depression; not a good mix for my condition; regime includes lithium (1500mg); lamictal (300mg); buspar (50mg); abilify (15mg) | M | 40 | 90 days 1X day | 1/12/2011 | 2 | Moderate depression and Anxiety | Nausea, headaches, and dry-mouth. Affected my vision, I was "seeing frames". Reduced sexual sensitivity and trouble reaching orgasm. Lot's of energy but foggy head. Couldn't sleep. Made me feel a little high. | Took it for three days then stopped because of the side affects. I have tried several other SSRI's and Wellbutrin. Never had a medication affect me that strongly in such a short period of time. The night after I stopped taking it I had very intense dreams, woke up in a cold sweat and had a terrible headache and upset stomach- Like a bad hangover, but I hadn't had a drop of alcohol-. Be careful it is a powerful one. | M | 28 | 3 days 37.5 MG 1X day | 3/10/2011 | 1 | Depression | Nausea, vomiting, flu like symptoms, panic attacks. Felt "poisoned." | Tried all the antidepressants, thought I would give this one a shot. Increased anxiety like mad! After trying 25 antidepressants, my doctor put me on 5 mcg's of Cytomel. After 15 years of depression, it went away in one day with Cytomel. It was like someone turned on the life switch. My thyroid tests were and are still normal.'I don't think big pharma has depression quite figured out yet. Try Cytomel!!! Read the testimonials on here, they are the same as mine. Start low and go slow (5 mcg's - 10 mcg's). No more than 10 mcg's per day.'You will feel like a dead plant come back to life! No generics! | M | 40 | 6 weeks 37.5 1X day | 3/6/2011 | 1 | Depression/Anxiety/ADD | Elevated AST and ALT Liver Enzymes; Lethargy; Apathy; Cognitve Impairment; Inability to focus; Tremendous difficulty for orgasm; You better get a script for Cialis, too. | If you have HepC, BE REAL CAREFUL. As I weaned myself off of Effexor, my AST and ALT declined from 10 to 15 times normal level to very close to normal levels. I weaned myself from 225mg down to 15 mg. I started this in December 2009, and did it very very slowly. At the very most, the reduction was 12 mg every two weeks. At times I ceased the plan--but not because I was having adverse effects. DO NOT TAKE THIS DRUG UNLESS IT IS THE ONLY A/D LEFT TO TRY. IT WILL TURN YOUR MIND INSIDE OUT AND SPIT YOU ON THE GROUND. | M | 50 | 4.5 years 1X day | 2/23/2011 | 1 | depression | It is my son who is on this drug. I think it causes his daily nausea, his vomiting, his sweating. He was a nice even-tempered thoughtful caring young college junior who got depressed. Now after 7 years on effexor he is the exact opposite--he is irritable, short-tempered, has free-floating anger and rage at everyone, even at animals. Nothing ever suits him and he blames everyone and thinks they pick on him. He can't sleep well or at the right time or he over-sleeps. He can't keep a job because he feels so ill. He is now using more alcohol, I think to try to feel better from the drug effects. He does not figure it out that the drug has made him this way, because he is so addicted to it. Now his doctor says he is bi-polar. I am sure it was the drug that made him bi-polar. It has such terrible side-effects. As a child and teenager up to age 20 he was never like this. I am convinced the effexor makes him this way. I am so sad for him and all the other people harmed. | This drug should be banned by the FDA. It does 100 times more harm than good and is causing serious disability in our young people. | M | 27 | 7 years 150 1X day | 2/19/2011 | 1 | Severe anxiety | Sweating, insomnia, nausea, space feeling, feeling very depressive, horrible boost of anxiety, feeling going crazy, hyperactivity. | It's the worst thing, no doubt about this. Pure poison. I thought I would really disconnect from reality. I got dreams (the few hours I was able to sleep) that were like over the reality. It's like to be trapped in a dream and you can't do anything to escape. The only thing similar to this, was when I got a high fever during a night. I don't care if this drug can help some people. So many are saying that it's poison, and they are right. People with good experiences are surely a minority. This was the most scary experience of all my life. I ended at ER begging for a way to stop this crazyness. Before to try it I thought it should be used at last resort. I got confident and tried it anyway. But I was right...it was a bad idea. Before I tried paxil, zoloft, wellbutrin, celexa, seroquel, zyprexa, and no one was near the hell of effexor. I got night panics on celexa and it was nothing compared to effexor. Whatever your doctor is good or not, stay away from effexor except if you tried everything. | M | 28 | 2 days 37.5 1X day | 3/16/2010 | 1 | complete loss of sex drive and all emotions! | took a med called cyproheptadine to help with wat effexor did to me and it helped! i had to take the cyproheeptadine 2-3 times a day for about 2 weeks for it to help tho | M | 22 | 1 months | 1/26/2010 | 1 | panic attacks | scary!!!! | NEVER TAKE THIS CRAP AGAIN!!! I FEEL CONFUSED, CLOUDY, DIZZY. I'M NEVER GOING TO TAKE THIS AGAIN! | M | 33 | 1 days 37.5 1X day | 2/28/2010 | 1 | depression | Alcohol binge drinking. | M | 34 | 8 months 150 | 10/1/2012 |