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 |
| 4 | Depression/PTSD/Panic attacks | Horrible Nausea at first and when dosage was changed, tired, difficulty sleeping, libido is actually better than before. | I was in a really bad place. Nightmares every night and tired all day, almost to a state of paranoia. Tried other drugs but the effexor xr seems to be doing the trick. It is a slow process and I take mirtzaphine at night. But I also keep all my therapy sessions. The drugs can not do it alone. I have resolved myself that I will probably be on the this or something else the rest of my life. | F | 51 | 18 months 150 1X day | 12/29/2010 | 4 | Depression | At 37.5mg my depression is controlled. I will experience episodes of depression but it's manageable. When I increase the dose to 75mg I experience vivid dreams, interrupted sleep, anxiety, irritability and unwarranted anger. | For me, this medication manages my depression if I take it at a low dose. I have not gained/lost weight, but I am an endurance athlete. | F | 47 | 6 years 37.5 1X day | 1/22/2011 | 4 | Depression | Vivid and exhuasting dreams, require more sleep than usual, STRANGE INTENSE dreams, Other than that no bad side effects. I have more of a sex drive now (could be because depression lifted) | This drug has helped a lot with my depression! | F | 23 | 3 months 75 1X day | 2/15/2011 | 4 | Anxiety, depression | decreased appetite, increased sex drive, night sweats, some irritability if a day was skipped | Over all like this one. Was on paxil - didn't work. Then Celexa - that worked but after 2 years - didn't help anymore. | F | 40 | 4 years 75 1X day | 2/23/2011 | 4 | Depression/ Anxiety | Weight loss. Dilated pupils. Tired all the time! - Sleep a lot. Probably sleep away half my life :( Helped with my random deep depressions that I would previously have, but seemed to cause a more prolonged mild depression. Don't think it helped with anxiety at all, in fact it may have caused me to have more social anxiety. Took me many years to realize this but I have great difficulty concentrating & loss of motivation ever since being on this drug. I used to be a lot more physically active, I used to always turn my homework in on time and be on time to things. Straight A student. Now I am the opposite, I sleep all the time, have no energy to work out, I procrastinate, struggle focusing on my reading for class. Also - when I first started taking this medication I noticed I had difficulty having an orgasm for the first few months, but this went away later on. It may be more difficult for me to have one, but I am now able to. | F | 25 | 6 years 150mg 1X day | 12/13/2010 | 4 | depression | extreme constipation, dry mouth | Effexor XR has been extremely good at treating my depression, and I will be eternally grateful for that. I would not be alive without it. | F | 54 | 5 years 150 mg 1X day | 10/13/2010 | 4 | Anxiety Disorder | First 2 weeks: Nausea, drowsiness, loss of appetite, weight loss, night sweats, heart palpitations. These actually go away after awhile. After a few months: brusing, increased risk of bleeding, decreased clotting time, bleeding gums, decreased sexual interest, breakthrough menstral bleeding. Was on 150mg at one point, but wasn't able to have emotions (never really happy & could not cry when appropriate) so dose reduced to 75mg. Do not skip doses, or stop taking "cold turkey" or will get withdrawal effects: feeling of electric shock or zapping through nerves, sweating, heart palpitaions, crying spells, difficulty sleeping. | Works well for anxiety & preventing panic attacks... but takes a few week to get full benefits of medication Go up slowing on dose to reduce side effects and go back down in dose slowly when going off to prevent withdrawal. If your emotions are too flat (never happy or sad when appropriate) your dose is too high. Take with food to reduce nausea. I don't take anymore b/c I don't need right now, but would consider it during times of stress. | F | 29 | 6 years 75mg 1X day | 11/15/2010 | 4 | PPD, GAD | First week was a little rough. Felt jittery and nauseous. Occasional night sweats. SLEEPY, but had difficult time falling asleep at night. Increased appetite. Short term memory wasn't very good while on it. | Effexor absolutely worked for me. I started to feel relief from my PPD in 1 week while on it. Then my anxiety went away, been dealing with that all my life. I felt great! At times even euphoric. I still felt emotion, I could laugh and cry when appropriate. No change in my libido(yay!). If it weren't for the side effects I would probably stay on it. The side effects are not cool. WEIGHT GAIN, hungry ALL the time! SLEEPY, but had a hard time getting to sleep at night. Short term memory loss, felt ditzy at times. It was mostly the weight gain that made me quit taking it. I worked out 5-6 days a week but could not control my cravings and continued to gain weight. I tapered VERY slowly. I opened the pills and would slowly increase the amount of the little balls that I would take out. I had ZERO withdrawal symptoms. I would recommend Effexor to others and would consider going on it again if I were going through a rough time (although as briefly as possible). | F | 33 | 1 years 75mg 1X day | 11/19/2010 | 4 | counter acts tamoxifen for breast c | none a little weight gain | stoped hot flashes from tomoxifen an anti breast cancer drug | F | 50 | 6 months 75 1X day | 11/29/2010 | 4 | Depression | I experienced memory loss in terms of little things e.g. going upstairs to get 3 things and only remembering 2 etc. This also made me a bit 'ditzier' than I thought I was. I experience cold sweats most nights while I'm sleeping. I also am experiencing withdrawal after an accidental period of double dosage followed by halving the dose again to the prescribed amount. | I was previously crying everyday often multiple times for no reason, after 2 days of the 37.5mg dosage this stopped and even when I tried I could not cry, it was like the water turned off even if I was genuinely sad. As I was still sad but not crying I moved up to 75mg as I had still only left the house for work and university I eventually moved to 150mg which has dramatically improved my life which I am actually living again like a normal person. The last time I went to the chemist with a new prescription they told me to take 2 capsules a day of the 150mg which I did. I did not notice any changes but since returning to the chemist they informed me that was wrong and I am only supposed to be taking 1per day. It has been 2 days since halving my dosage and I am currently nauseous, incredibly shaky and dizzy and had to call in sick to work. After reading these comments and experiencing this 'withdrawal' I am scared about the day when I will have to stop taking this medication. Also there was a period of 3 days where I missed my pills and by the end of the 3 days I was crying over nothing again. | F | 19 | 1.5 years 150mg 1X day | 8/17/2010 | 4 | anxiety disorder | Dry mouth, extreme thirst, and increased sex drive. If you miss a dose: migraine-like symptoms, nausea | I've been taking different amounts of effexor for about 3yrs. It has really helped my anxiety. Before I took it I couldn't even leave the house! Now, I can function quite normally. | F | 20 | 3 years 225mg 1X day | 9/12/2010 | 4 | Depression | Decreased libido/hard to orgasm. If I forgot to take it, I would get sluggish, foggy-minded, strange 'brain zap' sensations, happiness felt 'fake'. | Coming off if it was extremely difficult, but it did get me back to normal and able to get in charge of life again. | F | 24 | 3 years 1X day | 9/15/2010 | 4 | Anxiety | Side effects included increased sweating, permanently dilated pupils, nausea, teeth grinding/jaw clenching, increased heart rate (90 bpm) and increased blood pressure. The nausea and sweating subsided after the first month. | Despite the side effects this drug really did help me to gain some balance in my life, I am now tapering off slowly with no real withdrawal syptoms. My main reason for coming off is that the drug tended to dull all of my emotions and I kind of want to feel things fully again. | F | 25 | 1 years 75mg 1X day | 7/27/2010 | 4 | Depression/Mild Anxiety | {35mg for the first 2 days} sleeplessness, jaw clenching, hyper activeness, restlessness and finally 3 days later a collapse! (faint). ------------------------------------------------- {10mg self-reduced dose for 2 months} often became easily muddled (dopey), an inability to keep to my diet hence slight weight gain, decreased apathy and reduced hesitation to act on my thoughts. | Took half a 75mg pill for the first 2 days. It felt like i was on speed and then i suffered a collapse on the 3rd day. So Doc switched me to Celexa which i hated! Celexa felt like i was imploding and more depressed the longer i took it (for 2 and a half weeks). So i got an idea; to take Effexor again just in smaller doses, since it made me so energetic. Long story short, I've been reasonably happy with Effexor, my apathy reduced noticeably. The only down side is that i often would get muddled (like ask stupid questions and forget things easily). Doctor found out i was taking the Effexor outside of its capsule so told me to switch to a new brand, Pristiq, which he says is similar just in tablet form. | F | 29 | 2 months about 10mg 1X day | 5/19/2010 | 4 | depression and anxiety | weight gain, some jitters, loss of libido | If you are taking this drug and it works for you, stay on it. I weaned off of it and plunged into a horrible state the likes of which I had never experienced. The strange thing was, when I went back on it it did not work as well. I felt flat and couldn't laugh. Now I am trying Cymbalta, which I pray will work since this has been six months of Hell. | F | 44 | 2.5 years 150mg 1X day | 6/11/2010 | 4 | Depression | Insomnia, loss of libido, memory loss, loss of consentration | This pill has helped me a lot. That is when I am taking it when I am supposed to. However, the side effects are awful. I can't sleep at night and during the day I am extremely exhuasted. My memory is crap and I can't seem to consentrate very well. According the research I have done myself it has also caused both my babies to be born early due to toxemia. I wasn't taking it like I was supposed to with my second pregnancy and my child was not born as early as my first one. | F | 22 | 5 years 150 1X day | 5/1/2010 | 4 | Severe Depression | weight loss; dialated pupils; racing heart; loss of appetite; increased energy; changes in taste; restless; | Overall, I feel better even after just 8 days taking it. I have not had any "depressed" lows yet. Dialated pupils and racing heart lasted 2 days. I've lost 5 pounds already. And about 6 days into treatment...everything sweet, is now too sweet. I discovered this eating yoplait Cherry yogurt. It tasted like an entire box of artifical sweetner was poured into it. Same for tea, soda, and candies :( I havent tried chocolate yet. I drank alcohol while on this med, and did not experience any side effects. Moderate drinking too: 2 margaritas and 2 full glasses of wine. Still feels like the meds are working | F | 26 | 8 days 75mg 1X day | 4/19/2010 | 4 | panic attacks/anxiety | terrible headaches and nausea when missing a dose. otherwise, no more panic attacks and reduced anxiety. mild insomnia rarely. | i had my first panic attack at 11 years old, two years after my father passed away. i was first prescribed paxil, and had an allergic reaction, then i was put on welbutron, and it did nothing for me. i was then put on Effexor 37.5mg once a day and it worked wonders for me. When i turned 13, was uped to 75 mg once a day. I did not have a single panic attack, and rarely felt anxious for two more years (4 years anxiety free). although when missing a dose i had terrible headaches, almost migraines, and got very sick to my stomach, when i took it right i had no problems. the older i got the less i took it. No specific reason, just a forgetful teenager i guess, but in about three months or so i had gotten myself off of it on my own and was still anxiety free without it. during finals week of my junior year (i was 17) i had a week long panic attack. Full blown panic attack, shaking, numbness, constantly crying, fainting. although it came in waves it never fully went away. i went back to the doctor and was prescribed it again at 37.5mg once a day. i dont know if my body had changed or what but every time i took it, although a little less anxious, i had terrible headaches and was very sick to my stomach. it was like i had the withdrawal effects only when i took it as prescribed. i didnt even finish the first bottle. | F | 19 | 2 years 37.5 1X day | 3/9/2010 | 4 | depression/anxiety | weight gain in the past | I am back on Effexor after a month of trying Pristiq. For some reason, the Effexor works better for me. I don't think it has fully kicked in yet, but I feel better. It is true that this stuff helps you take things more lightly. I might try a combo of it with Wellbutrin, for the sake of motivation | F | 44 | 7 days 75-150mg 1X day | 3/14/2010 | 4 | Depression, Anxiety | Vivid dreams, lack of any sex drive, constipation, farting, some sleepiness. | If I take a weekend off, I can have sex/orgasms. When I have gone off the medication, the depression and anxiety is so awful. I will deal with the side effects any day for how Effexor has changed my life for the better. | F | 39 | 9 years 75 mg 1X day | 3/17/2010 |