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 Date added. 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 |
| 2 | Depression | loss of apetite, vivid, strange dreams, increased sex drive (opposed to paxil) slightly more energy | Apart from causing me to eat merely 500 calories a day, the only thing I like about this drug is my incredible dreams. It does not help with the feelings of the futility of life, nor does coming to find out that (by deductive reasoning from the 187 other cases above) these issues of mine will never be solved - except by of course a length of good rope or a hollow pointed piece of lead. I truely hope anyone who reads this can or rather, is leading a happy and fulfilling life, it is an uncommon blessing. cheers | M | 20 | 30 days | 5/21/2004 | 5 | major depression | major lack of energy, lowered libido, 25 lb weight gain, ravenously hungry at times but not all the time, when dozing off to sleep, my leg, arm or shoulder & arm will feel like a small electrical jolt shoots through one of them and will actually jerk and sometimes wake me up. The electrical jolt is actually rather pleasant. | How do I know whether the lower libido is a side effect of the drug or a side effect of getting old. All I know is that I used to want sex all day long when with my husband but now, I think about it but am just too tired to initiate anything. I know I have to be on this drug or I have dreams that couldn't be described as nightmares but I wake up feeling really scared and hopeless and see no reason to live. It's a very dark place and if I have to I will take drugs the rest of my life to prevent this dark place. | F | 54 | 2 years | 5/19/2004 | 2 | Bipolar disorder | Sleeplessness, tremors, anxiety, headache, dehydration, nausea | When I stopped this medication, I had the worst withdrawal of my life, like electric shocks in my head. | F | 51 | 5 months | 5/19/2004 | 5 | panic attacks and depression | i gained 40lbs in a very short period of time,night sweats,muscle spasms every night but i no longer have any panic attacks and the anger and rage i use to have, my mood is alot better | F | 32 | 9 months | 5/17/2004 | 4 | depression and anxiety | Initially experienced yawning and sweating at night at 37.5 a day.Raised up to 75mg and then 150 and I then experienced heart racing and pounding.Blood pressured raised slightly.When missed a day I felt like I | Immediately on 37.5 my mood improved. I woke up feeling happy and ready for the day. Did not feel anxious or excessively worried like before. On 75 mg continued postivie effect. At 150, I was worried about heart racing/palpitations. Dr. decreased dose to 115mg and then to 75 and added Wellbutrin. I have felt some sadness and anxiety return and heart racing continues. I don't know what to do because the heart related side effects worry me, but I don't want to experience the awfulness of depression and anxiety and I need to be emotionally stable for my family (we have two young kids). | F | 41 | 2 months | 5/16/2004 | 3 | panic with agoraphobia,depression | headache, drowsiness, palpitations | just increased to 150mg today so we'll see what happens.. | 21 | 1 months | 5/15/2004 | 1 | Depression | I only took it at the lowest dosage for 4 days. I felt like my blood pressure may have been high, and felt shaky, so I discontinued. The shaky feeling didn't quite leave, but it wasn't that bad. But 5 months later, I thought I'd give it another try. Again the same thing, but this time the tremor was worse. I've been off of it for 3 1/2 months and still feel tremor especially in my face, but also everywhere else. Before this I had been working hard at learning to play the piano. This is not fun when your hands and arms shake, so I've quit. I'm a little self consciense that people will notice the shaking in my face when I smile, so I don't as much. I'm not sure if this is ever going to go away. | M | 40 | 8 days | 5/14/2004 | 4 | bi polar | I was sick when I first started the Effexor XR. Things got better, then I noticed I could not sleep, there was no urge for sex, night sweats, hot flashes, constipated, night tics. | Just went up to 200 mg's and side effects are getting stronger. The medicine has worked very well for my disorder, but has caused problems with my marriage because of not having an urge for sex. Wellburtin did not work for me at all. | F | 27 | 4 months | 5/12/2004 | 4 | anxiety/worry | I found my palms got sweaty in stressful situations and almost felt more panic. Definitely has messed up my sex drive and I don't like that AT ALL. | I like that Effexor makes me feel normal and takes the worry away. The second day on it, I was really buzzed, but that subsided. The sweaty palms comment was due to having to speak in front of an AA group (I'm recovering) and my mind toys with me that I should be totally clean. I have only been on it for a week and will probably stop taking it (will talk to doctor today) because my sex drive went down the tubes and during sex, an orgasm was nowhere in sight. As an alcoholic, I am also very afraid of the dependency and withdrawal comments on this board. I think I am going to ask to try Buspar again (Didn't do much last time) along with Clonopin for real stressful times. | M | 50 | 1 weeks | 5/12/2004 | 2 | depression | BAD sweating! weight loss at the very beginning. if i missed more than two doses in a row i'd be a total mess. | 300mg daily. mostly i felt okay, but i wasn't comfortable taking such a high dosage and not seeing big results. | F | 20 | 2 years | 5/9/2004 | 5 | depression | dry mouth, other then that nothing else | F | 40 | 3 years | 5/8/2004 | 3 | chronic depression | Confusion, inability to concentrate, lack of motivation, no sex drive, agitation, incresed blood pressure, chronic constipation, vivid dreams, severe sweating | On 225 mg. This stuff just numbs me out. It's not that I am not depressed anymore, I just don't care. Impossible to concentrate, no desire to do anything. Totally removes sex drive. | M | 46 | 4 months | 5/6/2004 | 2 | depression, SAD | Increased craving for sweets at 37.5 dose; also constipation, which I've never had in my life. At 75 dose, dry mouth, painful muscle tension in neck and headache on that side of head, extreme sleepiness, physically dragged down. Dream exaggeration, but not unpleasant. | After three weeks on 37.5 dose, there was some mood elevation. Then I went to 75 dose and I think mood elevation remained but I was too tired to notice. Sleeping 12-14 hours per night, then nodding off on the bus, on the couch. Coffee had no effect. Pain in shoulder, as if someone were pushing me, resulting in headache bad enough to keep me in bed 30 hours, dizziness at that time too. That sense of someone pushing me along from the outside was unexpected and unpleasant; I'd much prefer to feel better from the inside out. If Effexor had a personality, I'd say it was a nasty Master Sargeant marching me along. The mood elevation came rapidly, but the side effects more than cancel out the benefits. I'm now tapering off with 37.5 for 10 days, at which time my supply will run out. I hope to get Effexor XR out of my system and go back to Prozac in the future. When I took Prozac for a year 10 years ago, a mere 5 mg dose/day gave me a great lift -- yes, from the inside, it seemed. I was in a fine mood, got tons of work done, made big decisions, even looked better. I had minor side effects with Prozac for about three weeks, then smooth sailing. I'm very sensitive to all drugs, and of course aging changes your system somewhat. Effexor is not for me, but I'll miss the exciting dreams. Probably it's a good drug for those with more robust systems. | F | 67 | 5 weeks | 5/5/2004 | 2 | anxiety | BIG knots on my face, neck and back very similar to acne, but harder and very painful. NO sex drive either! | F | 28 | | 5/4/2004 | 4 | Depression | weight gain (20lbs in 12wks), constipation, skin rash, muscle twitches, fatigue | It really helped with my depression. Due to gaining weight I stopped taking effexor cold turkey. Not only did I have severe withdrawal symptoms and recommend that no one stop abuptly, I snapped right back to the old depressed, crying routine I so happily learned to live without. Other than the weight gain, I would be happy (literally happy) to live with the other side effects and stay on this drug. My doctor is going to put me on Wellbutrin after I taper off Effexor to see if that solves the ravenous appetite. | F | 40 | 3 months | 4/30/2004 | 3 | depression/anxiety | NIGHT SWEATS!!! Wake up several times a night b/c of it and vivid dreams. If I miss one dose, I am cloudy, dizzy, sleepy and | At first I was happy on it, my anxiety and depression decreased. I had an interest in old hobbies I once enjoyed, more energy, more social and my memory was really great. Now up to 300 mgs and the night sweats are terrible. I am relieved to know that I am not the only person experiencing the same symptoms. I am feeling lethargic and not as happy as I was a couple months ago. If I have one drink on Effexor....I am FEELIN it. | F | 29 | 11 months | 4/29/2004 | 5 | major depression, generalized anxie | night sweats, fatigue, modest weight gain | I'd tried many other AD meds in the past (SSRI's, tricyclics, Wellbutrin), none of which helped and caused many side effects. EffexorXR at 75 mg has really made a big difference in my outlook. I'm d/c now in springtime (my depression is always worse in winter) by incremental withdrawal of 3 beads daily from the capsule. While I've gotten some return of depression and irritability, I'm able to exercise more and am taking off the few pounds gained. I'm nearly drug-free (10 days to go of a 2-month taper) and am glad I've gone down so gradually. | F | 52 | 2.5 years | 4/28/2004 | 4 | depression/anxiety | Loss of libido, gurning, tiredness, yawning | Withdrawal symptoms are severe, headaches,muscle pains,nausia,sensory problems like electrical shocks,wobbly vision. Cured my anxiety and depression wonderfully, stopping the tablets is the difficult part. It is all physical and will end after about 8 weeks of | F | 24 | 7 months | 4/27/2004 | 2 | Depression and Anxiety | At first the only side effect that I experienced was yawning which was annoying but tolerable. After being on this drug for an extended period I have began to feel increasingly more anxious and depressed than I was before I began taking this medication. The withdrawl symptoms are also terrible. I have had the worst headaches ever and also have been very dizzy and that is after only missing one dose. | Consider this drug carefully before you begin taking it. The withdrawl symptoms are horrible. | F | 19 | 6 days | 4/26/2004 | 5 | depression, gad | rise in blood pressure | Changed my life for the better | F | 52 | 3 years | 4/23/2004 |