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 |
| 1 | Anxiety | Constipation, sleepiness, tiredness, insomnia, hotflashes, heart racing fast, loss of appetite | F | 24 | 2 weeks | 8/1/2007 | 1 | Depression & Emoyional problems | AWFUL!!!! Shaky, tired & suicidal! Terrible withdrawl for 3 wks when going off this medication. Scariest time of my life with medication. | F | 45 | 8 months | 8/12/2007 | 1 | MILD depression | wight gain, water retention, vivd dreams/ nightmares, crying, shaking, brain tremors or shocks, ( iseriously do not know how to adequtly describe it but it is debilitating), leg twitching, arm twitching, blurred vision, eye strain, think things hapened that really din not!!!!, believe dreams to be true the next day, crying, memory loss, confusion, my husband has no compassion to my withdrawal symptoms. | DO NOT TAKE THIS DRUG EVER EVER EVER EVER. | F | 32 | 2 years | 9/18/2007 | 1 | anxiety-depression | no desire,tired,restless | It is the worst medication to try and discontinue! I have tried several times to no avail. Each time I have the crying spells, irrational behavior, severe dizziness, brain zaps, just simply can not function. I am down to 37.5 for the last year and still can not manage to go off. It worked in the very beginning; however, stopped pretty quickly. It is not worth it. It is an awful drug! | F | 32 | 8 years | 7/10/2007 | 1 | hot flashes due to hysterectomy | When first put on effexor I did NOT sleep for 3 days. Increased dose helped but I have no interest in sex, I am more irritable and moody. The reason I was put on it was for hot flashes and night sweats and now I can't stop sweating. | It I had researched this medication instead of listening to my Dr. I would NEVER have taken it. Everytime I complained about this med my dose was increased. I tried to stop but had severe dizziness, lack of sleep, nausea, I couldn't even get out of bed. The only way to stop this was to go back on it. I never had a problem with meds before. I am addicted to this drug and I hate it. | F | 50 | 2 days | 9/7/2007 | 1 | anxiety and menopause | rapid heartbeat,sore neck,anemia,fatigue,jitteriness,dizzy,sleep sweats,hot flashes,vivid dreams,weakness in legs.weight gain,chills,muscle spasms,very dry mouth,trouble sleeping. | I WISH I HAD NEVER TAKEN IT. SIDE AFFECTS ARE HELL TO TRY AND LIVE WITH!!!! | F | 55 | 6 months | 7/6/2007 | 1 | Bipolar/Rapid Cycling/Depression | While on it, I didn't notice much change. I was rather scared reading the side effects here. Then an incident oocurred where my insurance went through changes, and my doctor moved out of state, and i was still in prescreening for the new docs. The discontinuation was horrible. EXTREME Nausea, irritability, lack of focus/concentration, Brain shivers, etc. come off slowly if you have the option! | F | 24 | 5 months | 8/3/2007 | 1 | Anxiety/Depression/Energy | The side effects getting on the medicine were not bad. It was getting off the medicine that was horrible. I do not recommend you taking this medicine if you ever have the thought of getting off of it. I experienced dizziness, uncontrollable mood swings, I missed work, I basically could not function for days to more than 2 weeks. I was completely miserable. Please stay away from Effexor if at all possible. Try something else. | F | 32 | 3 years | 5/22/2007 | 1 | depression | Horrible headaches, brain "swishes" or "zapping" when I was even a few hours late for a dose, constipation, horrible crying spells when going through withdrawal. Wanted to kill myself several times while on this drug, when I hadn't been suicidal before. This drug should really be banned by the FDA. | HOW TO QUIT THIS DRUG: Buy an over-the-counter sinus headache medicine for the zaps, and take very high doses of Omega-3s. Also, attempt to take a low dose of a drug such as Zoloft if you are able. Going off the drug sucks, but these things made it a lot better. | F | 24 | 4 years | 9/14/2007 | 1 | Major Depression | Increased suicidality and suicidal ideation. Increased memory of dreams (waking during REM cycle) and thus constant tiredness. Change in personality - increased irritability, increased agressiveness. | Withdrawing from this drug has been a nightmare. Forgetting one dose, and I was nautious and disoriented, with numb and tingly skin, brain shivers, crazed appetite (minimal to excessive). When it was decided that the side effects were minimal compared to meclobemide (Arima) and sertraline (Zoloft) my dose was upped to 300mg at the highest. At no point did it do anything to stableise or elevate my mood. At no point was I warned that my personality would change and I would loose my social network. At no point was I informed that it *was* addictive in humans, despite non-human testing showing otherwise. At no point would I have taken this drug if I had known that I would miss vital days of my final year at school, lose the respect of my employer, and loose my friends as a result of withdrawing from it after a very short period. I had never had difficulty withdrawing from other medications previously, and had never found myself addicted to anything, and was suprised to find such a chan | F | 17 | 3 months | 8/18/2007 | 1 | Depression | Taking drug for one year. Going off drug with physician's help. Profuse sweating, irritability, no relief from depression. In fact, increase in cyclical depression, causing suicidal ideation. Be cautious of increasing dosages. Remember, this is just my experience. Everyone is different. Rely on physician's help. For reference, I am 58 year old female. | Depression is a real disease. It does require treatment if it becomes pervasive in one's life. If one has a history of taking various antidepressants for years, I do not advise Effexor XR. Particularly in dosages of 150mg a day or above. Side efffects too debilitating. Relief minimal, at best. | F | 58 | 1 years | 9/7/2007 | 1 | Depression/anxiety | Nausea, constant yawning, no sex drive, lethargic, dizzy, irratible, sleepy, weight gain, "fuzzy head", MOOD swings, trouble sleeping, crying. | HORRIBLE! I will not ever recommend to anyone. I had nothing but trouble with it after the first 2 years. Never forget to take it you will be sorry. The withdraw(which is BAD) is almost immediate. You can get a better anti-depressent than this without all of the mind numbing side effects. Most important never "cold turkey" this medicine. | F | 35 | 8 years | 11/2/2008 | 1 | Depression | Pooped out very soon, still felt depressed but had added symptoms of anxiety, muscle pain, weakness, joint pain, fatigue , vertigo, to mention a few. | While withdrawing very slowly (over 4 months now), I've had the worst every symptoms. Brainzaps, vertigo, flu like symptoms, excessive sweating, nightmares, itchiness throughout body, biting of tongue at night, body aches, headaches, nausea, vomiting, weepiness, depression, suicidal thoughts, nightsweats, chills, high blood pressure and now under active thyroid. I would warn anybody to be VERY wary of this drug. In my opinion its changed my life for the worse. My memory is so bad, Im unable to hold a decent conversation at times, and forget things from moment to moment. I absolutely hate this drug. Its now nearly 5 months of weaning and have finally got my doctor helping me with additional meds to eliviate the withdrawals. I've failed twice and this is the last time, I refuse to take another antidepressant. I hope the above helps somewhat. I was on 150mg effexor xl (slow release) for 3 years. I've been off it for 8 days. Really sick at times and hear voices. Frightening, but Im determi | F | 39 | 3 years | 9/10/2007 | 1 | Menopause & depression | Took first dose late yesterday morning after a late breakfast. It knocked me out within 30 min. & I slept 2 hours. After waking up, I had severe nausea & a bad headache. Off & on that evening I was "spacey" and moved very slow, but I knew what was going on. This morning, I did not hear my alarm go off for work, woke up 1 1/2 later, called boss, told her what was going on & was only late 30 min. I am typing this slowly & I barely know what's going on. My boss is checking on me... This is one strange, bad drug. Needless to day, I won't take another one & I hope it wears off soon. | F | 53 | 1 days | 11/9/2007 | 1 | anxiety/depression | This drug did help my depressiona and anxiety, don't really recall any bad side effects. | It was when I decided to come off it that I had the problems. This drug has extremely bad side effects when coming off. I was weaned off at the slowest rate according to my doctor and it still took me about 2 months to get rid of it. I had nerve "shocks" where it felt like parts of my body were getting zapped constantly. I felt horrible the whole time. I craved the drug but refused to get back on it. I felt like I understood how crack addicts must feel! I would not reccomend this drug, even tho it initally helped. | F | 31 | 1 years | 10/26/2007 | 1 | Anxiety, Panic Attack | I took one Effexor befor I went to bed at 11 p.m. Woke up at 7 a.m. sweating, disoriented and feeling like I was on PCP. I then had a seizure and was taken to the hospital. | The doctor cannot believe that I had a seizure after taking one pill but I did. He feels that since I have low blood pressure, this may have lowered it even more. I do not take any other medications and have never had a seizure before. I was sent for numerous test after the seizure and everything came up great. | F | 43 | 1 days | 10/31/2007 | 1 | Depression, anxiety | I was unable to do anything besides sleep constantly. I had to work in order to pay rent and bills but I would get up and go to work horribly tired and then would come home and sleep until the next day. So, I wasn't able to eat much at all. Then I finally stopped taking it because I had a seizure. Never want to be put on a medication again. I've learned to deal with my anxiety and I dealt with my depression on my own. I found out that when I was taking it, it had just came out and had not been tested thoroughly and it made me feel like I was a test subject. Horrible thing to do to people, but ,hey, american researchers have been doing these types of things to people since after WWII and probably before. | F | 24 | 2.5 months | 10/27/2007 | 1 | for anxiety | Actually, I was originally on Celexa, and that was not not working, so they put me on Paxil and that was not working and then back to Celexa. I had heard of these 2 before and spoke with ppl who were on these meds. I had never heard of Effexor so I thought I would do some research after I had been prescribed the medication - I actually took my first dose of 37.5 and then started my research. After finding this site and seeing all the bad reviews I got freaked out and decided to take myself off ALL meds. | I never thought it was possible to go off meds. I thought I needed to get better first. I was so paranoid, I was a hypercondriac, I had anxiety sypmtoms DAILY. Constantly taking Ativan along with the meds, when I was only taking it maybe once a week at the beginning. All meds were making me feel worse that what I was from the beginning when I had my first anxiety attack 5 months ago. I was so desperate that I started seeing a therapist (which I recommend for anyone), I see an acupuncturist( please, everyone try it - painless and you feel great), I see my chiropractor who also specializes in Kinesiology. He gave me some Nutri-West supplement pills and also Micro-West Whole System EEP drops I take 3 times a day. I don't know if it is working but I will tell you this ... I feel 90% better than I did on any medication. I have been off the meds for 3 days and have been taking these other things for the same. I don't even find myself being paranoid and anxious. I am relaxed and can actually | F | 28 | 5 months | 10/28/2007 | 1 | depression/no energy | very sleepy,cannot sleep through the night wake up around 2-3am hungry.going to the bathroom alot.weak and light headed,shakey. | If you are going to take this medication do alot of research on it...after feeling like this for 2 days im going to stop taking it. | F | 30 | 2 days | 10/20/2007 | 1 | Anxiety | Panic attack lasting 3 hours. Sweating, cold and hot flashes, shakes, my heart felt like it was beating inside out. I did not sleep for the two days I took this. I felt HORRIBLE and insane. I'm pretty sure I had an adverse reaction to this drug. | Effexor may work for some people but I had a terrible expirence with the stuff. It's also supposed to be highly addictive and very hard to stop taking. If you feel like your going insane switch MEDS!! I switched to Wellbutrine and I am fine now. | F | 31 | 2 days | 7/18/2007 |