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 | General Anxiety, cumpulsion | Started at 37.5 and then went to 75 and am now on 150. Felt extremely dizzy and out of it the first couple of nights, but that quickly settled down. Now I suffer from excessive overheating and sweating (night sweats are the worst). Perhaps some loss of energy, but that could be the result of any number of things. Major dry mouth for the first couple of months too but I think thats mostly faded by now. | Really seemed to calm me down and stop getting all worked up over every little thing. Not totally sure its the best medication for me - but thats more because im not exactly sure what it is "I have." | F | 23 | 7 months | 2/22/2007 | 3 | GAD Depression Panic Attacks | I am taking effexor with benzos due to a current crisis event. So far the panic is undercontrol and I feel pretty mellow today as opposed to crawling out of my skin yesterday and tearful. The depression is still there but I am afraid to continue the effexor now since reading these ratings. I will do more research though. FYI Zoloft never worked for me, and Wellbutin only slightly (may have been dose related.) | My hope is to have my depression and panic events under control and to get on LIVING with hopefully some weight loss!!! | F | 32 | 2 days | 2/23/2007 | 3 | Major Depression | Huge weight gain. Craved sweets, carbs and salty foods. Easily agitated. Insomnia. Worked well at low dose but lost it's effectiveness. At higher doeses just made me more irritated and did not help with the depresion. | Weaning off was a nightmare. Felt like my brain was going thru shock therapy for weeks. Hot and cold flashes. Horrible! I took Omega 3 (Flax Seed Oil capletes) and that seemed to help out with the side effects. | F | 39 | 1 years | 3/6/2007 | 3 | depression/social anxiety | weight gain, sweating, loss of libido, crave carbs - see additonal comments. | effexor xr works well for my depression & anxiety. However, beware! I experienced loss of good judgement and loss of guilt when I started taking effexor xr. I quit my long-time job, divorced my husband of 17 years and moved out of state all in that first year! I highly recommend that you do not make any life changing decisions until you and your doctor see how this medication affects you at the onset of taking this drug. This adversely affected every aspect of my life - personal & financial. Never had thoughts of "suicide" only thoughts of "suing" the pharmaceutical company. Note that this happened at the onset of taking effexor and I had no warning of this type of side effect. I take effexor xr 75mg daily - truely do not know if I still need it. I am so afraid of the withdrawal & aftermath that I may be taking it the rest of my life. Very scarey thought. | F | 57 | 10 years | 3/11/2007 | 3 | depression anxiety | trouble sleeping, inability to achieve orgasm, severe interaction with alcohol | I've only been taking this for 13 days, sleep trouble and lack of orgasm started immediately. I'm hoping these side effects go away in time. I've sworn off alcohol as I experienced severe hostility while drinking on this stuff. I'm only taking 37.5 mg to start, my doctor said he'd up the dosage to 75mg after 2 weeks. I actually feel worse now than before I started taking it, but i feel I can chalk that up to not sleeping for the last 2 weeks. I hope to notice a beneficial difference with the dosage increase. I'd love to converse with someone near my age (36) (female) who's going thru the same crap. Moral support etc. | F | 36 | 13 days | 7/12/2005 | 3 | Pre-Menopausal Depression and other | Sweating!! And I thought hot flashes were bad!! The worse side effects are from withdrawing. My head spins and I cannot sleep. | If you are considering this drug...STOP!! Don't do it! It helped for a while, then pooped out. The doctors wanted to just keep increasing the dose. I increased a couple of times. Now, getting off this stuff is AWFUL!! These drugs may bee good for some people, but think twice and get all the information you can BEFORE you start it! Try accupuncture or other alternative things first! I wish I had. | F | 49 | 6 months | 11/21/2006 | 3 | depression and anxiety | very tired at first,feeling totally "out of it", extremely dry mouth, vivid dreams, sweat a bit more and difficulty urinating. | was originally taking 75mg once a day which took effect after a week. my mood lifted (had been on lexapro for 2months and it didnt help at all). was great..but after 3 months my mood and concentration dropped so doctor put me up to 150mg once a day. have been on 150mg for 5 days now and i feel so "out of it" still. walking around in a bit of a daze. all i want to do is sit and do nothing..as i feel i cant do anything. also..extreme difficulty urinating..takes me ages to "go" anybody else have this problem? really not looking forward to tapering of this med..sounds awful. | F | 21 | 3 months | 4/1/2007 | 3 | Depression | Early on, naseau and sleeplessness. After a year and now on 225 mg I am sweating like crazy all the time, I get tingles in my hands and if I miss a dose I get dizzy and foggy and brain shivers. I am not able to leave the house until the meds kick in because I am physically just very sick. I have developed an ulcer given the medication is very hard on your stomach and recently had my eyes checked and now I have developed glaucoma (another lovely side effect of this drug) Never did get my sex drive back. Gained 40 pounds. | This drug has changed my life but it has now become so problematic given all the negative side effects that I am not so sure it has changed my life for all the better. From what I understand getting off this drug is horrible. I am very worried about this. | F | 35 | 1 years | 11/27/2006 | 3 | depression and anxiety | vivid nightmares, night sweats, loss of libido, other sexual dysfunctions, horrible withdrawel symptons, very little emotions regarding sinificant others, still have sleeping problems but i don't think effexor made it worse.. | i started on 75mg and made my way up to 150. i may have gone too fast though becuase i got numb in my face and hands with tingles that sometimes would move up my arms and shoulders. i didnt think it was the drugs at the time. after i got used to it 150mg was great. I stoped hating myself, and depression subsided. Yet i had vivid nightmares that were really horrible and i started to get night sweats real bad. showering at night became useless. after a while though 150 started to lose its effectiveness and subsequently i got moved up to 225. now i feel like an emotional wall. i am happy though which has never been the case. It comes at a price though; nothing penetrates the surface, i don't care really about anyone for more then a minute. music doesn't sound as good. i still have anxiety; no panic attacks. NO libido, fo anything/anyone. nightmores have subsided. The real problem is the withdrawel. within a few hours of missing a dose i start to feel weird. within 24 its an all out acid t | F | 20 | 2 years | 8/18/2006 | 3 | depression/anxiety attacks | loss of appetite and slight headache once it was increased to 112.5mg but nothing serious. | still waiting for it to kick in - still feeling very anxious but it's only been 3 weeks. | F | 39 | 29 days | 11/22/2006 | 3 | depression | Initially, inability to reach orgasm. More recently, decreased (dead) sex drive, night sweats, periodic auditory hallucinations, chronic fatigue/inertia. | When I first began taking the drug, I thought it was a wonder drug. It was as though I had had a "screen" of depression and anxiety between me and the world and Effexor removed it. I had never before felt so balanced. However, over the years, I've put on a significant amount of weight, and more recently, I've been having a lot of sleep troubles (either can't sleep or can't seem to wake up) and feeling tired and disinterested regardless of how much sleep I've gotten. I tried to discontinue the drug several years ago, and as others have noted, the withdrawal effects are horrendous. Considering that it no longer seems to be helping me and I don't want to increase my doseage (I'm at 150mg), it looks like I'm in for a long period of misery while I try to wean myself off it. | F | 39 | 7 years | 2/18/2007 | 3 | Anxiety/Depression | Dramatic weight loss of 16kgs in the three months I have taken it (150mg a day). Also get lots of night sweats. My jaw is continually clenching. A lot of hair loss. | Not too sure what to expect in the long run. I seem to still be very anxious but not depressed. Maybe that is because time is moving on and I beleive time is a great healer. | F | 44 | 3 months | 12/14/2006 | 3 | Depression | Hair loss, night sweats, complexion break outs, hormonal changes, increased blood pressure & cholesterol | This medication has worked for me better than any other, although it's not as effective as it once was & my highest dose has been 300mg. The one time I weaned off (tired of my side effects); I experienced horrific withdrawals! | F | 38 | 7 years 225 1X day | 4/17/2012 | 3 | anxiety | the medication worked well but if I missed a dose by several hours I experienced an odd dizziness as though my brain was loose inside my skull. Quitting was brutal -- took many months of weaning off the drug to limit the dizzy/brain spin and overall feeling of ick. | Much too difficult to get OFF of the drug. I would not recommend this to anyone. Though it worked well for the anxiety and depression, it was NOT WORTH the side effects. | F | 48 | 4 years 30MG 1X day | 1/8/2012 | 3 | depression anxiety | long term use effected liver functions | Horrible withdrawal symptoms from drug: extreme anxiety and brain zaps | F | 49 | 2 years 600 1X day | 7/13/2011 | 3 | Social Phobia / Anxiety | skipped or late taking pill: night sweats, sleep paralysis, bizarre dreams, dizziness, blurred vision, intestinal issues, involuntary muscle twitches. Regular side effects: constipation and dizziness. | Doctors tend to group all anti-depressants together, but I wouldn't recommend due to the side effects from the short half-life. Also, I was concerned about pregnancy issues and now that I've found out it causes severe respitory issues for the child if taken in the 3rd trimester, I need to get off it. One tends to think that if a drug is "not addictive", then it would be easy to get off. This is definitely not the case with Effexor XR, so doctors should alert their patients to the this potential issue. I am finally at a point where I am semi-free from anxiety and now I have to face full anxiety plus these withdrawal symptoms. Also, others have mentioned long-term side effects (brain zaps, etc) and not sure I want to stick around to find out. | F | 40 | 2.5 years 225 1X day | 11/4/2011 | 3 | depression | . I couldn't take Effexor XR which is extended release. It gave me horrible nightmares and I kept waking up. I found on the regular Effexor that I didn't have any of these symptoms because it wears off. | F | 56 | 3 days 60 1X day | 11/22/2011 | 3 | anxiety | After beginning i had terrible nausea,sweating profusely,constipation,lack of sex drive. Trying to wean off now and my brain feels like its on a rollercoaster,im so irritable i feel horrible. This is my 2nd time on effexor xr and there Will NOT be a 3rd!! effexor xr and there willNOT | F | 29 | 2 years 75 mg | 11/24/2012 | 3 | hot flashes | The sexual side effect of no orgasm was the worst and is why I stopped taking it. I had thought if this drug stopped my hot flashes and helped me sleep better, that my libido would improve. It didn’t work out that way for me. The first three days on it I had killer headaches but continued to take it and they never re-occurred. I had to change to taking it in the morning instead of the evening or it would keep me awake all night. It gave me several tremors (more like full on limb jerking) everyday. Both the sexual side effects and the tremors occurred less often after a month of being off Effexor and they stopped being a side effect over the next few weeks . I didn’t originally take this for depression but did get the benefit of it working for me in that respect. I was calmer, less easily agitated over the small things and just overall in a better frame of mind by the third week of taking it. I was surprised at just how good I felt! When I went off of Effexor | F | 56 | 90 days 75 1X day | 5/17/2011 | 3 | Anxiety, migraines | Very sleepy - could easily sleep 12 hours a day ; weight loss at first | This definitely helped with my anxiety - it felt like the voices of constant worry about all the different things I had to worry about were gone. I was able to focus on one thing at a time, deal with it, and move on. However, I was still having physical manifestations of anxiety (racing heart, etc.) and migraines so my docs kept increasing the dose. At higher doses, I was exhausted all the time with no change in therapeutic effects. Finally gave up on it, coming down off of it was very very unpleasant. Lots of anxiety and anger. Wish I could have stayed at the low dose and added something else. | F | 37 | 8 months 150 mg 1X day | 7/4/2011 |