EFFEXOR XR Reviews (VENLAFAXINE HYDROCHLORIDE)Average Rating: 3.0 (2225 Ratings)Filter ResultsCompare EFFEXOR XR with similar:
Type: Rx Drug
|
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 | Extreme weight gain, dizziness, unable to focus eyes, fatigue, IBS, loss of menstrual cycle, increased blood pressure | While the drug itself did help my depression - the side effects are horendous. I have gained about 50# after being on the drug for almost two years. I cannot seem to get off it as the withdrawal symptoms almost kill me. | F | 27 | 2 years | 3/27/2007 | 1 | PTSD, Major Depression, Panic Attac | Weight gain, horrific oedema in my legs, tremors -almost impossible to use my cell phone, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic insomnia - sleeping 2-3 hours in 36 hours, fatigue that generates almost comatose sleep for up to 20 hours about every three weeks, loss of concentration, confusion, fear of leaving the house, intense anger and hopelessness | I'm stuck in the middle of litigation for worker's compensation case involving bullying/sexual harassment which caused my PTSD etc. If I'm not compliant with medications and treatment it will go against my case. Where I live the W/C legislation with regard to psych injuries is so tough that if you're not on medication you baically don't have a case. It sucks! I DETEST EFFEXOR | F | 44 | 2.5 years | 2/23/2007 | 1 | PTSD, Major Depression, Panic Attac | Weight gain, horrific oedema in my legs, tremors -almost impossible to use my cell phone, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic insomnia - sleeping 2-3 hours in 36 hours, fatigue that generates almost comatose sleep for up to 20 hours about every three weeks, loss of concentration, confusion, fear of leaving the house, intense anger and hopelessness | I'm taking 225 mg daily plus sleepers which just don't work, meds for IBS caused by Effexor, meds for oedema and painkillers for headaches.I'm stuck in the middle of litigation for worker's compensation case involving bullying/sexual harassment which caused my PTSD etc. If I'm not compliant with medications and treatment it will go against my case. In our jurisdiction the W/C legislation with regard to psych injuries is so tough that if you're not on medication you basically don't have a case. It sucks! I DETEST EFFEXOR | F | 44 | 2.5 years | 2/23/2007 | 1 | DEPRESSION PANIC ATTACKS | BIG TIME BRAIN ZAPS, DRY MOUTH ,WEIGHT GAIN ,SUICIDE THOUGHTS , LEG AND ARM TINGLING, HAIR LOSS, CHEST PAINS, GAS, YOU NAME IT I FELT ALMOST ALL SIDE EFFECTS. TOLD DOCTOR I WANT OFF THIS. TOLD ME I NEEDED TO STAY ON BECAUSE MY BODY MUST NEED IT TO FEEL ALL THESE SYMPTONS.WELL NO WAY THIS IS THE DRUG FROM HELL. I AM WEENING MYSELF OFF NOW AND IT IS HELL I HAD TO QUIT MY JOB AND I HOPE TO GET THIS CRAP OUT OF MY SYSTEM. BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!! HOPE I GET THROUGH IT WITHOUT COMMITTING SUICIDE. SHOULD BE OFF THE MARKET. I EVEN ASKED MY DOCTOR IF IT WAS ADDICTIVE AND HE SAID NO. WELL THATS A BIG FAT LIE!!!! AND PATIENTS SHOULD BE WARNED OF THE EFFECTS BEFORE GIVING IT TO THEM. I NEVER WOULD HAVE TAKEN THIS . IT HAS RUINED MY LIFE. | BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! | F | 52 | 1 days | 2/23/2007 | 1 | depression | No side effects felt at first. Now dealing with HP and liver problems, night sweats, headaches, strange dreams, lack of appitite, fatigue, lack of sex drive. | THIS DRUG IS DANGEROUS. DO NOT TAKE. At first this drug seemed great. Now, this drug scares me. It is messing up my body..ie HP, liver problems...being check for any other problems. Now, reading about getting off Effexor is even more sacry. But it must be done. I don't want to die from the side effects that Effexor causes. | F | 48 | 2 years | 4/1/2007 | 1 | depression | euphoria followed by the inability to feel any emotions. increase in depressive symptoms. | Initially I loved this medication. I thought my depression was cured. After being on the medication for a year, I was sad one day, and had a good reason to be sad, and could not cry. That was when I realized I could not feel emotions anymore. This medication turned me into a zombie, which made my depression worse. The inital euphoria experienced when taking this medication is short lived and this medication made me numb to everything. Feeling depressed is better than feeling nothing at all and I do not recommend taking Effexor. | F | 19 | 16 months | 3/9/2007 | 1 | depression | Flat affect, change in personality, short-term memory loss, feelings of death | F | 27 | 45 days | 10/20/2006 | 1 | depression | on the smallest dose...the first pill...debilitating depression and a complete lack of energy, combined with panicy thoughts, and fear | I believe this is a very dangerous drug. I took only one pill and the next 4 days coming off it was a living hell. | F | 48 | 1 days | 10/31/2006 | 1 | mild depression | Took 37.5mg once daily for 2 months. Pains all over body, Heat travelling down both arms n legs, then legs started thrashing bed. Both arms n legs went into spasm, cramping up. hospital by ambulance, diagnosed with Restless leg syndrome and aggravated by EFFEXOR XR. 1 week later, 1 tablet every 2nd day. 2hrs sleep per night, legs extremely agitated, problems walking, weekness n pains all over body. Throat dry n hoarse. Unclear brain. Constipation then haemmorrhoids. Weight Gain. 2nd trip to casualty n now on rivotril for muscle spasms. | Would not recommend to any living species. | F | 47 | 2 months | 10/25/2006 | 1 | Anxiety | Vertigo, severe depression, became suicidal, severe headaches, nausea, vomiting, difficulty staying asleep, nightmares, moodiness, lack of energy, horrific withdrawal symptoms, etc... | I would never ever recommend anyone take this stuff. I was on it from Dec. 2005-Feb. 2006 and finally completely stopped taking it when I became so unconcerned with others and depressed I wanted to kill myself. Sure it helped my anxiety, I didn't care about anything or anyone. It was absolutely horrible. The withdrawal was hell on earth. I stopped cold turkey because I couldn't afford to buy more of the prescription at a lower dosage (I have no insurance) and I dealt with vomiting, weight loss, severe headaches, severe moodiness (I snapped at everybody... Not like me at all), etc... for 3 months! It was brutal. | F | 24 | 3 months | 10/22/2006 | 1 | depression | I gained a tremendous amount of weight and my legs/ankles swelled to the point I could not get my shoes on. I also had a bad shortness of breath. My regular MD told me to tell my psychiatrist to take me off effexor immediately as it was causing all the fluid retention-turned out I had an enlarged heart also. Regular MD said doctors give effexor to cancer patients to help them gain weight. I don't think it is weight they gain - it is fluid. Very dangerous. | Effexor made me gain between 40-50# which didn't help my depression. Made me feel worse about myself and my life. | F | 63 | 8 days | 8/17/2006 | 1 | Depression, Bulimia, Anxiety | Hallucinations, Sweating, Severe Insomnia, paranoia | While taking this medication I stayed up a whole night, worried about the little animals, mice, snakes, worms that they were going to eat me. I found out later, they were hallucinations. I told my roomate a man was following me. I saw his shadow outside of my one class, despite her looking for a man outside the door and not seeing one. I didn't sleep the next night either, because there were "people" all around my room. I ended up drinking lysol, because I thought it was lemonade and the people were telling me to. I think it really depends on the person. My good friend took it and nothing happened to her like this... | F | 22 | 3 days | 2/5/2007 | 1 | anxiety, panic, dysthymia | became a vegetable, lethargic, unable to do anything, tired all the time | THIS SHOULD BE BANNED. Getting off Effexor XR was awful. Absolutely awful. Hell is a mild word for it. It is a poison that you cannot stop. | F | 58 | 4 days | 8/19/2006 | 1 | paxil had pooped out | Effexor XR is a very ADDICTIVE DRUG that the psychiatrist would not admit is MORE ADDICTIVE AND MORE DANGEROUS THAN Benzodiazepines. It has no worth whatsover for depression, anxiety (made it worse), fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, dysthymia, panic or anything else it is being promoted for. IT IS A WORTHLESS DRUG BEING PROMOTED BY THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY TO STUPID PSYCHIATRISTS WHO HAVE NO CRITICAL THINKING. | Never start it. It is impossible to stop. My idiot female psychiatrist (how did she make it through Medical School and Internship and Residency????? Money? Her father a doctor)would not believe how addictive it was. She only believes what the drug reps tell her. She had no critical thinking and did not pay attention to what patients say (a person may be "crazy" but not stupid. I have my Ph.D. in Biochemistry and she did not believe me..... Also retired University Professor.... | F | 58 | 5 years | 8/19/2006 | 1 | Migraine and backpain | chest pain, swollen tongue,nausea,shocks...etc | never take this med it can kill you with a heart attack if you take the common maxalt meds avoid all triptans, it should be off the market | F | 46 | 1 years | 8/20/2006 | 1 | Chronic Fatigue Syndrom/Fibromyalgi | narrowing of emotional capacity, jaw clenching, loss of orgasms (not desire for them, though), fatigue, loss of appetite. After stopping: dizzyness, headache (centered around sinus/eyes), confusion, inability to form coherent sentences or stay on task, increased pain in neck/shoulder/back area. | Tapered on for one week at 37.5/day; stayed on 75/day for 2 weeks; tapered off for one week at 37.5/day. Once off medication, real problems started - dizzyness, pain, brain dysfunction. YIKES! Do NOT take this drug - it's VERY scary. Do as much research as you can and you will find it's not worth the risk. Some people can NEVER stop taking it - others have problems for weeks or months. The only really good thing it did for me was completely wipe out my body pain when nothing else touched it - but I DO NOT recommend it becuase now that I'm off it, the pain is worse than it's ever been before AND I have all the other stuff too. This is the first medication I've ever heard of where there are even more side-effects once you're totally off of it than when you're on it. | F | 36 | 4 weeks | 8/21/2006 | 1 | depression | suicidal/homicidal hopeless thoughts, irrational broke a tooth grinding them incessantly, erratic menstrual periods, intense dreams that I could not tell from reality and could not wake from. Sleepiness and bouts of sleeplessness extreme lethargy developed diabetes type II high blood pressure and was hospitalized twice when trying to ween off of the drug. | No one ever told me even as I was seeing my psych and psychologists weekly, and my physician, that what I was experiencing could be from the drug. They just said I was severely mentally ill and needed hospitalized and more and more medication. At my second involuntary hospitalization I refused all psych meds and miracle of all miracles I FINALLY GOT BETTER. 5 months drug free and no more hospitalizations ps both my psychiatrist and my psychologist dropped me during my last hospitalization. Said I was too severely ill for them to help me. NICE! But I've gotten better ever since. | F | 45 | 5 months | 8/24/2006 | 1 | Depession | Horrific side effects when taken even one hour late. Impossible to come off drug. I took the pills apart and reduce the tidy bobbles one by one for 3 months and still had migraines and dizziness. No help from Doctors. On internet discovered the half life is the problem and that taking an anidepressant with a long half life ie prozac, I lost all withdrawal symptoms immediately. | Don't take it unless you can guarantee to take it on time every day for life! | F | 28 | 9 months | 9/1/2006 | 1 | depression | tired, thirsty, | wasnt helpful | F | 44 | | 8/26/2006 | 1 | Depression | Very expensive and it didn't work. No effect on the depression. It did however increase the depression in my checking account! | Very disappointing. | F | 55 | 1 months | 1/17/2008 |