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 | anxiety | once i got restless and paranoid. isolated experience. | good anti-anxiety/anti-depressant | M | 365 days | 7/8/2009 | 4 | Major Depression. Pain , | tired felling during day, weight gain | felt tired during day so I take it about 6:00 pm helped with my sleep,has helped with my depression alot !!! helped with my pain and muscel spams in back, still have Tardive Dyskinesia Symptoms from the drug from HELL metoclopramide.Will keep taking it. | M | 54 | 45 days | 7/12/2009 | 4 | depression, addiction | gradual weight gain, lower sex drive,break into sweat so easy, always hot. | years of depression and self medicating with pot, alcohol and cocaine finally came crashing down, got clean but struggled with the depression, went on effexor and once it kicked in the world got brighter, after a year i stopped taking it( gradually) went into a deep depression, relapsed on drugs and wanted to die.got clean, am taking 300mg in the morning daily, and doing great, sometimes I think about long term effects, but just for today this is working, I am happy, positive and productive, married 15 years and two kids.Alive thanks to recovery and treatment of my medical depression, so I am staying with it. | M | 39 | 8 years | 5/8/2009 | 4 | Deprssion | When starting: Severe insomnia and very disturbing 'mental tension' for about a week (paradoxally I felt very calm and positive). After that side effects where mild: weight gain, vivid dreams, 'mental tension', decreased libido!! After long term use (2 x 3 - 4 years) I become really crammed of taking it. Warning: Potentially severe side effects when discontinuing! lightheadness, strange dizziness, emotional instability. However, tappering it off slowly and TAKE A LOT OF VITAMINES & GINSENG helps tremndously! | Very effective drug (I have been on Prozac few times and it did work the first time then never again) Effexor worked each time. It also very good against anxiety and does not affect concentration so bad as Prozac (and other SSRI). It has a very stable effect and therefore can be used for long term treatement. However The very negative side effects when discontinuing (yes it is not a myth!) have to be warned off though! For me, vitamins help great time (no more brain shivers and 'water melon head' feelings!). | M | 47 | 4 years | 6/16/2008 | 4 | depression | None | None | M | 67 | 6 months | 6/29/2008 | 4 | Major Depression | Sleep issues, also I now have a harsh edge to my inter-action with others. This was attributed to anxiety.. so have a med for that. | Generally seems to doing a good job with mood, though I'm not impressed with the sleep issues (couldn't sleep...so now I have a drug for that). I've also lost about 30lbs.... 240 down to 210lbs. (Not that I complaining on that one). I've been through most of the SSRI's... this SNRI seems to be working .. at least for now. But now you see where once I took 1 med for mood, I now need 3 ..... | M | 50 | 3 years | 12/26/2008 | 4 | Depression/Anxiety/ | I am on 150mg a day. I have experienced a few side effects. To start with, I have not been able to cry since I started taking this medication. However, at the same time, I often well up with tears but don't cry when watching sad movies, and sometimes for no apparent reason. Before taking this medication, I had never cried about a sad movie. I also have experienced some excessive sweating after being active. I do not sweat while active, only when I stop. Sometimes I have difficultly focusing, but not often. The withdrawal effects are quite substantial if I miss a dose. The effects are "brain zaps", dizziness, headaches, sensitivity to light, nausea, shakiness, mental confusion, and difficulty focusing. | I have been wanting to get off of the medication for the past couple of years, but am afraid of the withdrawal effects. I had been trying to wean off of it, but I experienced the withdrawal effects if I did not take my full 150mg dose. | M | 21 | 5 years | 5/29/2008 | 4 | Depression, social anxiety | "brain zaps", extremely vivid dreams, increased insomnia, lower sex drive which fluctuates, manic feelings. | The main issues I have with this drug is I find it can cause insomnia and obviously severe and unpleasant withdrawal. Some side effects such as brain zaps continue even without missing doses. White balls present in stool which I at first mistook for tapeworms and it freaked me out since I work with animals and worms are a common hazard. Once I realized it was XR Effexor balls it made me wonder why they weren't dissolving and if I was not getting the full effect. Don't be discouraged by the side effects reported by other people, I tried many other medicines before this and found them useless and was very skeptical about depression medication until I found this worked. Obviously the benefit should always outweigh the drawbacks, if your depression is mild than maybe this is a bad idea. | M | 28 | 2 years | 4/10/2008 | 4 | depression | constipation, aching muscles in both legs and fatigue | M | 20 months | 11/17/2008 | 4 | GAD | Getting off the medication is a big hassle. Feeling nasuea, drained of energy, and "brain zaps". Took me almost 2 months to get off the medication. On the other hand the medication worked very well. Very little side effects occured. | M | 22 | 2 years | 2/26/2008 | 4 | severe depression | lowered sex drive,teeth grinding, blurry vision, weight gain and raised blood | I had to taper off dose from 150 mg to the 75. because it seems to affect my vision.My sex drive has almost gone and I have gained weight and raised blood pressure. This drug has worked for my depression but dito with the side effects with trying to come off it. Was it worth it? I cant really say except I am still alive to tell the tale! I have lost all motivation for what I really cared about in life and this truly bothers me (sometimes!)I just seem to be in a limbo state but at least I can cope with the ebb and flow for now but I am going to try coming off it when I dare! | M | 34 | 2 years | 9/28/2004 | 4 | Mild Depression / Anxiety | At first, I was experiencing a little teeth grinding (for approx. the first week). Other than that...no problems so far. | I have noticed an opposite sexual (benefit). Last night during sex, it seems like my orgasm was much stronger than it has been in a very long time. | M | 27 | 2 weeks | 10/25/2004 | 4 | Depression/Bi-Polar Disorder | Excessive sweating, paresthesia, low libido, night terrors, vivid dreaming, insomnia, somnolence, severe headaches. | Although the medication did what it was designed to do, the side effects of the drug (for me) eventually became more difficult to "deal with" than the depression. For me missing one dosage by even an hour caused paresthesia symptoms. I have been taking dosages as high as 375mg. The side effects increased anytime a dosage change was made (increase or decrease in dosages intensified the side effects with some homostasis but all side effects were always present). For me I felt I was put into this viscous cycle of treating medication side effects with additional medication. That history was provigil for somnolence/narcoleptic side effects. Ambien for insomnia, then eventually switching Seroquel (in low dosages) to increase the amount "sleep" time. I have since discontinued taking the medication and after one week of not taking the medication my sleeping has finally started to normalize (no sleeping aids), somnolence has gone away, paresthesia is still prevelant b | M | 36 | 4.5 years | 9/17/2006 | 4 | Anxiety | Very vivid dreams, loss of appetite (had gained about 20 pounds on paxil, so the weight loss wasn't a bad thing in my mind). Loss of sexual interest---although I was able to achieve orgasm which was not possible on other types of drugs. | Like most drugs of this type, you should not abrubtly stop taking it. Within one day of a missed dosage, the famous brain zappings, flu like symptoms, and disoriented feelings start. | M | 41 | 3 years | 7/18/2005 | 4 | anxiety | tiredness, ejaculatory disfunction | M | 2 weeks | 7/19/2005 | 4 | depression | other than the haters telling me my depression was all in my head, and to stop taking it or to just change my way of thinking... that was the biggest chalenge for me... other side effects I can not even remember, however they where only in the begining, little or none now... weight change, 5-10lbs up or down, gas, dry mouth, etc. | I take about 225 mg, once aday, started taking smaller dose in the evening, and was having side effects, now I take it in the morning, and feel much better, I still don't sleep the whole night, only a few hours here and there... however this has helped my social life so much. and I feel better about myself even when I am alone, maybe more people should see their Dr.s' with respect to depression. | M | 32 | 2 years | 12/11/2004 | 4 | depression | M | 23 | 16 weeks | 11/21/2004 | 4 | anxiety,social phobia | for 3 weeks hot flashes, anxiety, sleeplessness, lack of sex drive, lack of energy. | its cleared my worrying, stress to an extent, changed my frame of mind. This drug gave me sanity and peace within myself. | M | 36 | 2 years | 12/17/2004 | 4 | bipolar | if missed dose in morning, by evening was extremely dizzy, disoriented, pressure in head/headache. Would take a couple of hours to go away even after taking medicine. No sex drive, could achieve erection but harder to sustain for looonnng time as had difficulty in coming to orgasm (much to wife's dismay). | was taking 225mg of Effexor with 5mg Zyprexa, 300mg Wellbutrin. Seemed to help with the extreme irritability/anger I would have all the time and leveled me out more. Got rid of anxiety. Had somewhat of a lack of effect (who cares) attitude then, so not really happy either. New pdoc had taken me off Zyprexa this last week, and am in process of weaning off Effexor -37.5mg/wk at a time. | M | 40 | 10 months | 4/28/2006 | 4 | Depression | Reduced libido, some difficulty with ejaculation. Some anxiety and "brain shocks" for the first day or two. | My depression mostly manifested in an inability to start new projects, rather than any feelings of sadness. Right after I started Effexor XR, I noticed a big improvement in this for a couple of weeks; since then, there's some improvement, but it's not as pronounced. I may switch to another medication (or raise my dose) if the effect continues to decline. I'm taking 75mg/day. | M | 41 | 2 months | 3/1/2006 |