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 | "head swooshing" - Not bad. Fatigue and some weight gain. | I also take provigil to help me stay up during the day. This has helped to clear up my depression. | F | 34 | 10 months | 8/23/2006 | 4 | gen anxiety disorder | In the beginning, I was tired during the day,but now I sleep like a baby at night instead of having insomnia. | I do feel this med is working very well and would encourage anyone to take it. I am a little concerned about withdrawl though. I did go through absolute hell trying to get off Paxil. I thought I had a brain tumor. I couldnt get out of bed I had so much dizziness and nausea. My doctor did recommend switching to Prozac when I want to get off. | F | 38 | 3 weeks | 9/22/2006 | 4 | GAD/ Agoraphobia/ Depression | Decrease in sexual desires of any sort, loss of emotion and ability to cry, withdraw is HELL. Brain jitters, nausea, cold sweats, vertigo... and that is with stepping down from 130 to 75mg. It stops after about a week. Treat it like the flu :) Next goal... 37.5mg | I still have slight panic attacks, but after 14 years, I know how to deal with them. I want off this medication and know what I have to face. I will have to say, after 13 different meds and treatments when I first started having GAD/Depression/ and my phobias, it is the only on that worked and never failed me! I would have killed myself without it. | F | 31 | 14 years | 2/25/2008 | 4 | Depression, Eating disorder | Excessive yawning, with a euphoric feeling each time I yawned, very spaced out, happy in another world, no withdrawal, no weight gain | didnt get rid of my eating disorder, if anything it continued it. | F | 21 | 3 months | 1/4/2006 | 4 | Depression | Headaches, fitful sleeping and takes a while to get going in the morning. Other than that it has helped enormounsly with my depression | My periods have become irregular and at first were light now quite heavy and lasting a full week. DId not gain weight or lose interest in sex. | F | 41 | 6 months | 9/1/2006 | 4 | Mostly Anxiety; little depression | At the very beginning of taking Effexor XR (75 mg) I had more energy, sweaty palms, jittery legs, hot flashes. After about two weeks, the side effects settled down and I thought I was doing alright. | But then I felt almost the same as I did before Effexor XR. I started thinking maybe I had to increase my dose but then about a month and half before I went to see my psychiatrist, I started excercising a lot and now I feel great. I'm not going to change a thing but I think it was a combination of the Effexor XR, the summer starting, taking walks during my work days, and generally excercising more. I haven't had this much confidence and self esteem in so long. I can finally talk to my best friends like I used to and I can't tell you how good that makes me feel!!! I feel like myself again, and I'll tell ya, it's been close to 10 years!! | F | 29 | 4 months | 8/8/2006 | 4 | anxiety and depression | decreased appetite, decreased sex drive, inability to climax | Effexor has worked well for me--while I don't feel "happy", I do feel very balanced. I don't experience mood swings or emotional lows like I did prior to taking the medicine. I experienced a difference within days, which seems impossible but did in fact occur. While I have experienced the oft-mentioned decrease in sexual desire, I have not experienced the notorious weight gain. | F | 19 | 2 weeks | 4/23/2007 | 4 | Crying, Anxiety & Depression | Major weight gain(30+lbs), lack of energy and motivation, constanting sleeping(12+hrs/day), increased sweating, high sex drive, mild anxiety continues, will not leave house for days, mild suicidal thoughts are returning | Effexor has helped me to stop crying and stopped my depression. I continue to have mild anxiety but for the most part it has improved majorly. I am very disappointed in the weight gain but that always comes with mental meds. I do like how laid back and relaxed it makes me feel. I have good and bad days still but more like a normal person now. For the most part the meds are satisfactory but I'm sick of being fat but I am scared to go off the drug. We'll see what my doctor says when I see her this week...wish we luck to be weened off lol :-) | F | 29 | 1.5 years | 1/29/2007 | 4 | Fibromyalgia | First week was terrible. I should not have even driven a car. But the doctor said to stay with it for a week. After that I was fine. | Within 3 days the pain from the fibromyalgia was almost totally gone. | F | 56 | 8 years | 10/7/2005 | 4 | depression | weightgain, sex side effects | hard to get off of | F | 35 | 90 days | 12/23/2005 | 4 | Depression/Mood Swings/Anxiety | I initially lost my appetite and lost about 6 lbs. I compulsively yawned for the first couple of days. I went from 37.5-75 mg right away, where I stayed for quite awhile until I was uncertain it was throughly working and wanted to try 150 mg. Biggest concern with this medication is it's drousy fatigue effect. It may be something to do with my sleep patterns, or something else, but as far as I know ever since I've been on this medication I've been ridiculously tired. I sleep all the time, and even when Im awake Im still tired. I cant concentrate because Im tired and Im forgetful, and worst yet I can't work out because I am just too tired! | I am currently weaning myself off of Effexor XR. Wish me luck. It did it's job as far as treating my depression goes. I didn;t have my crying spells, mood swings, or suicidal thoughts. I still had anxiety sometimes and reaching orgasm was hard to do at first, but becomes easier with time. | F | 20 | 2 years | 5/19/2006 | 4 | Depression | Hypomania! Increased blood pressure (110/68 is my normal, went up to 170/110). | After taking this a while I was diagnosed with bipolar II. I had to stop because it was creating a life-threatening situation with the increased blood pressure. I was upset that I had to stop because this made me feel good! Although the psychiatrist wasn't happy with that because I was actually experiencing hypomania, not "normal" life. Overall though I liked it. | F | 26 | 1 months | 4/4/2006 | 4 | severe depression, anxiety | Jaw clenching, excessive yawning, extremely bizarre dreams and terrible nightmares, false awakenings, dullness of emotion, "whatever" attitude.. I have missed a dose here and there but have noticed no withdrawal symptoms. | Currently on 225mg a day. Switched from Paxil. Effexor XR worked very well for me for a long time but about 6 months ago I had a relapse partly due to a major life change. Dose was then upped from 150mg, now doing a little better. I'm giving this drug a 4 because it has kept me alive which Im thankful for. I do feel however that doctors belittle the side effects IMMENSLY. The worst thing for me were the nightmares though they have stopped now. My dreams were 100% real to me and often very disturbing. However I had also out-of-this-world, wonderful super dreams which I now miss terribly. I feel like a zombie also, just recently Ive started feeling stronger emotions again. Effexor XR has made me feel that things are ok and I dont want to change anything, I am not discontent though I think I should be. Everything has been just blah for so long. | F | 23 | 3 years | 4/6/2006 | 4 | GAD | dry mouth, frequent urination, weird dreams | worked very well and made me feel calm and normal again. Using biotene toothpaste to increase saliva can help with the dry mouth problem. Have taken effexor before and the withdrawal is not pleasant, but if done very slowly it's possible. | F | 27 | 2 years | 9/21/2006 | 4 | depression, anxiety, OCD | Wired with a dry mouth... I feel a little apathetic right now because this is the first time that i have felt good in a while and feel like sitting around and enjoying it... i bet this passes and then i get some motivation | No one talked about what happened during the first couple of days and i bet people are wondering. By day two I felt better, I had a little too much energy even (probably because i am used to having none). I haven't felt like eating at all except when i realized that I had forgotten a meal so i ate to keep my energy up. I thought this was supposed to take weeks to work and I felt great day 2. I didn't even realize that I had felt that awful until I felt good. I don't ever want to feel like I did again. Effexor saved not just my life but my quality of life :) | F | 22 | 5 days | 9/19/2005 | 4 | Despression | At first the dry mouth, tremors, headaches and the night sweats were terrible, especially week before mensturation - increase in appetite constantly (binging) while no one looking ..... unless the appetite was just an excuse? | I have been on Effexor XR for about 12 months now and taking 450mg in the morning. Though my moods do feel much better ...I dont have that darkness surrounding me constantely, I am very tired and the weight gain is bringing me down. I combine this with Valpro and now take 1000mg morning and night. I am also taking every weight-loss diet pill or diet, starving myself or whatever and then binging ....? as I said not sure if its just me making excuses or the medication. | F | 34 | 12 months | 9/24/2005 | 4 | General Anxiety | Dizziness if I didn't take it at the same time every day. | I had many things going on in my life in 2005 ...changed jobs, daughter (last child) going off to college, son moved 500 miles away, lost our beloved dog the week before daughter left for college and I was out of town. Perimenopause. My OB/GYN prescribed the drug for me when I broke down during a routine visit and couldn't stop crying. After being on for about 10 months, I started forgeting to take the pill at the same time or would accidently skip a day. I found that I would become severely dizzy and felt sick. I actually thought I was having symptoms of a heart attack. I now take it at the same time every day (75 MG in the AM so I don't forget)and haven't had any bad side effects. Generally keeps my anxiety in order, and I don't overreact to simple bumps in the road any longer. I am generally happy and wouldn't consider going off at this point in my life. | F | 47 | 18 months | 9/30/2006 | 4 | Depression due to Bipolar Disorder | weight gain, dizziness, headaches, Electrical shock like feeling-not constant, but takes a long time to get rid of, diareah, constipation, nausea.... | I believe this medication is VERY ADDICTIVE in the long run. I expierience shock like sensations that run through my body for a brief period of time when effexor isn't taken for a period of 3 to 5 days. These electrical shock like feelings vary in intensity and duration, usually I feel it in my arms ,chest, and fingers. | F | 23 | 3 years | 9/27/2003 | 4 | Depression/Anxiety | No sex drive and loss of appetite. | F | 26 | 2 years | 4/3/2004 | 4 | anxiety | naussea | once stopped taking it for 4 monts ,the first week had a very hard tine with dissines and crying a lot, but after 2 months my anxiety simptoms came back gradually so i started taking it again 75 mg and i feel very well, im afraid to stop it again. | F | 28 | 3 years | 4/2/2004 |