EFFEXOR XR Reviews (VENLAFAXINE HYDROCHLORIDE)Average Rating: 3.0 (2225 Ratings)Filter ResultsCompare EFFEXOR XR with similar:
Type: Rx Drug
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More on EFFEXOR XR: Reviews Summary | Drug Safety Information
| RATING | REASON | SIDE EFFECTS FOR EFFEXOR XR | COMMENTS | SEX | AGE | DURATION/ DOSAGE | DATE ADDED |
| 1 | menoposal - hot flashes, insomnia | Fatigue, tired, inablilty to think clearly, depressed, prolactin levels went sky high. | Severe withdrawal symptoms, feeling like you are not in your own body, fatigueness, dizzy, not being able to think clearly. When my OBGYN stated to ween me off, she suggested I take a full strength (75)one night and the next night a half strenth (37.5) for one week, then a full strenght one night then half for two nights and then all the way down to nothing, and right now I am at the 37.5 for one night and then half of that for 4 nights in a row. I feel so weird.... I would not recommend this to my worst enemy...horrible drug. | F | 50 | 8 months | 11/23/2007 | 5 | Anxiety/Panic Attacks | High blood pressure, rapid pulse, shakiness | I have been on 225mg for four years now, and effexor has been a LIFE SAVER for me!!! before then, i wasn't able to sit in the front row in class, church, etc, be in large crowds, drive on the highway...ANYthing!! now i do all of those things!! i am so happy i started effexor, my life has definately changed for the better! maybe ill taper off it if i get pregnant someday, but i really dont want to, i'm scared i'll have panic attacks again. | F | 27 | 4 years | 11/21/2007 | 1 | Social anxiety and Depression | Nightmares, Dizziness, Dry Mouth,Suicide thoughts, Hot flushes.Addictive | I wish i never started taking them | M | 27 | 6 months | 11/20/2007 | 4 | depression | bruise easily, severe joint pain, some brain zaps, loss of words. | I have been on EXR for 5 years. Overall, the drug has helped me greatly. Recently I have been experiencing bruising and severe joint pain. I had blood work done and everything was normal. I think it might be from the EXR because I don't take any other medication. Is anyone else experiencing these problems. If so, what did you do to relieve this terrible joint pain. Some days I can hardly walk. | F | 44 | 5 years | 11/19/2007 | 5 | clinical depression | Vicious lightheadedness, blurred vision, unable to walk straight without a 'woozing' feeling in my head - (when i forgot to take a dose. No symptoms when i took it regularly. Quite hard to get off of, symptoms are strong when tampering. Highly recommended not to just quit 'cold turkey' style. Taken at the 75mg level | This drug helped me battle my high risk clinical depression. Tapering off permanently had about a week of on and off side effects but well worth trying. It isn't for everyone but for some people its a wonderful option. | F | 1.5 years | 11/18/2007 | 3 | depression | lack of motivation, feel very out of it, increased sex drive, but had difficulty reaching or feeling orgasm, constantly want to eat (I feel like I'm always craving carbohydrates), constipation, horrible to come off of, vivid dreams, begin to feel withdrawl symptoms within 24 hour period as it gets close to the time that I should take it. | I first started taking it a few years ago, after the birth of my 1st son.It worked very well at 300mg.I continued taking it until the birth of my 2nd son a few years later.I became pregnant while on it & wanted to come off of it because I was afraid it would harm the baby.Even though I was tapered off of it very slowly (not by choice, the side effects were so bad it was the only way that I could do it),it was a nightmare. The only thing that I can compare it to is scenes from movies like Trainspotting where people are coming off of drugs like Heroin. It took 3 months to come off of it. At that time I swore I would never take it again.After the birth of my 2nd son, I tried other anti. & nothing worked.I was convinced by a new doctor to begin taking Effexor again & was told that if I ever wanted to come off of it again it could be tapered off with Prozac to alleviate the withdrawl symptoms.The strange thing is that while it worked a few years ago, it is affecting me different | F | 28 | 3 years | 11/18/2007 | 4 | depression | bruise easily, terrible joint pain, still have days that I have no desire to get out of bed. | I have been on Effexor XR 150 for 5 years. During the holidays I increase to 225. I don't get the withdrawal symptoms with this doseage change. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced the bruising and terrible joint pain. I have had all kinds of blood work done, and my tests are all normal, so I think it has to be the Effexor. That is the only medication I take. It makes you look like a crazy person when your labs are normal and you still complain of pain. The doctor must think I am crazy or making it up. I know the pain is real. | F | 44 | 5 years | 11/17/2007 | 3 | Feeling Sad & Down | Seizure attack, palpitation, shakiness, while starting and when got off the medication. Started with 37.5 and double after 2nd week. I was 113 lbs, gain 20lbs and still struggling to loose the weight (after 14 months of getting off it). Loosing weight was never a problem in the past. My beautiful clothes don't fit. Difficult to reach orgasms. Help feeling good while on it in the beginning but upset feeling still arise after awhile. | The medication does help and there are Pros and Cons in everything we do. Family support and positive attitude will help people with depression and anxieties. Unfortunately I am married to someone who criticize me for feeling low. I am not allowed to be sad for any reason and even when I lost my brother I was not allowed to cry and moving across the world and being very far from my family didn't help with feeling sad. Effexor was there for comfort but I had to put up with it side effects. In my case every criticism I received just made me stronger and not to make others put me down. | F | 38 | 1.5 years | 11/17/2007 | 1 | | 11/17/2007 | 1 | Depression | Initial neck pain and lack of appetite. After several months, began having auditory hallucinations. Psych reduced dosage and voices continued. Have been off Effexor XR for 4 years and still have voices and Paranoia. | Relieved depression greatly, but if you may be Bi-polar, ask alot of questions before taking this med. It is not worth the voices. Am now on Risperdal to fix the side effects that Effexor unleashed. Not as bad a Prozac, but it is not worth the chance of hallucinating! | F | 26 | 1 years | 11/16/2007 | 1 | depression | strange "shock" effect which would startle me; excessive sweating on mild exertion; rapid cycling through levels of depression; no relief of overall depression; increased anxiety; suicidal ideation, (where none existed before); increased physical pain; visual distortions | I believe that there is an inherent chemical problem with this drug. I have never felt such frightening side effects from ANY other drug I have ever taken in my life. And withdrawing from this drug is even worse! Confusion, severe anxiety, feelings bordering on pain and abject hopelessness. Wyeth needs to take another look at this drug. Should be prescribed with great care. Dosage should be kept down to a minimum. Doctors who prescribe it need to monitor their patients very carefully. May be fine for some people, but having taken other antidepressants in the past, I find Effexor XR by far the least effective, and the most dangerous. | F | 58 | 6 months | 11/15/2007 | 3 | Anxiety | Insomnia and brain shivers. I wake up at 3am every single night and remain awake until about 530, it is exhausting. When I don't take my medicine for just 1 day, I have horrible brain shivers and even worse anxiety than I ever had before the medicine. | I've tried Lexapro, resulting in weight gain. Tried Zoloft and it made me me sick to my stomach all afternoon, I guess I have to stick with this. | F | 27 | 1.5 years | 11/14/2007 | 5 | Depression and GAD | delayed orgasm, less sexual sensation, sweating, increased blood pressure | It is an extremely helpful drug for me. I was having severe suicidal thoughts prior to starting the drug, and Effexor XR has made my life enjoyable again. Have taken Wellbutrin, Celexa, and Paxil in the past and had to stop for one reason or another. Effexor XR made it possible for me to discontinue monthly ECT Maintenance Treatments. I am also not experiencing any anxiety. In all, this has been very good. | M | 39 | 3 months | 11/13/2007 | 4 | Depression | Fatigue, Irritability, Severe Withdrawal, Stomach Upset, Memory Loss | I started taking Effexor XR for depression. It worked, but I have suffered from overwhelming fatigue since. I tried to go off it several times, and the withdrawal was very severe. I always went back to it. (I wanted to stop while I was pregnant.) I was dizzy, felt like fainting, sweating, horrible headache. | F | 31 | 4 years | 11/13/2007 | 1 | Depression | Hi, I have been on effexor for years now. I had never really experienced anything on them other then the "normal" side effects. I see now that I am not the only one that can't get out of bed. Recently they have been adjusting my effexor all the way up too 300mg where I was hearing voices and seeing things. The piercing noises in my head were enough to drive anyone crazy. I went back down to 150mg where I figured things were normal, but I guess the "normal" side effects really aren't that normal. I went out almost two weeks ago with my sister and we did consume some alcohol throughout the evening. I was pretty excited because I haven't been out in some time. When I proceeded to the dancefloor, well.... that is all I remember. I passed out! I woke up in the hospital not knowing what in the world happend. I found out later I hit my head on the wall and now I get to see a neurologist because the doctors think I had a seizure from mixing my meds and the alcohol. My docto | Drug company's should never be allowed to sell products like this. | F | 35 | 5 days | 11/12/2007 | 3 | Depression | Chronic fatigue, chronic severe muscle tension in my legs, back and neck, jaw clenching, gastrointestinal problems, loss of libido and sexual dysfunction. | I started this drug at 37.5 and complained about the side effects. My doc said the side effects would go away if the dosage was increased. It was upped to 75 mg and then 150 mg. The side effects are worse, not better. I've been on this med for more than 12 years, but am ready to find an alternative. It has helped with the depression, but the side effects are ruining my life. There's got to be a better way to treat depression than this. | M | 45 | 12 years | 11/11/2007 | 2 | bipolar depression | migraines and other brief headaches throughout the day, feeling feverish and flu-like, fatigue and sleepiness, apathy, nausea and lack of appetite which led to weight loss, no libido, and a kind of emotional numbness which isn't considered ok usually, but was welcome after having the intense feelings of a long depression | I was on this drug before and it helped me a lot, and i only got off it because of bad night sweats. This time it hardly helped at all and brought out dep. symptoms I'd never had plus soooo many other side effects! And I've withdrawn from every other antidepressant on the market, but this is awful! I haven't been able to work for a week and a half because I'm dizzy and have the "flu" everyday! | F | 47 | 4 months | 11/11/2007 | 1 | depression | Suicidality increased dramatically in the first three weeks. Then additional side effects of "erratic behaviour" Suicide was successful. | This drug should not be given to anyone without the doctor notifying family/friends of potential side effects. Close monitoring of patient during initial phase of taking drug is vital. Lives are lost on this drug. Doctors should prescribe this drug with extreme caution. Successful suicides result. | M | 20 | 19 days | 11/11/2007 | 1 | M | 43 | 6 years | 11/9/2007 | 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 |