EFFEXOR XR Reviews (VENLAFAXINE HYDROCHLORIDE)Average Rating: 3.0 (2225 Ratings)Filter ResultsCompare EFFEXOR XR with similar:
Type: Rx Drug
|
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 |
| 4 | Depression/Anxiety | Headaches at first, delayed ejaculation (a very good thing in my case!), vivid dreams, slight brain zaps if I miss even one dose. | Switched to effexor after I hit a brick wall with Paxil after only one year. Slowly tapered off Paxil while ramping up to Effexor 150 mg. No problems during the transition, except for a bit of agitation. (Took Klonopin during that time). So far, so good, but who knows? My depression is gone, I feel normal, but everyone is different. Hopefully this will work for a long time, and I don't experience some of the horror stories other people here have described. At any rate, almost anything is better than being in the depths of despair I sink to without medication. | M | 51 | 2 months | 9/10/2007 | 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 | 4 | panic attacks | weight gain, severe side effects if only one pill is missed | I initially decided to start taking a mild antidepressant b/c of going thru rough peiod. I started with Celexa, the very first pill I took caused SEVERE panic attacks. I actually went to the emergency room. From that day on I had severe panic attacks all day for no reason. I was prescribed Effexor for that. At first it gave me racing heartbeat, and vivid dreams. I was only prescribed 37.5mg. It actually took a long time to get rid of the panic attacks. I had them all the time for about 6 months, then slowly they stopped. This medicine actually inhibits the panic attacks from becoming severe. I would still get panicky, but definitely wasn't as bad without the medicine. Sometimes situations will arise where I'm anxious, but definitely no anxiety for no reason. It is something you have to stick with, its not a quick fix. It does take time for it to work. The really bad thing about this pill is the side effects if I miss just one pill. I get very swimmy headed. Someone described it perfect | F | 21 | 2 years | 9/9/2007 | 3 | Anxiety, Depression | When Starting medication: Acne,dizziness, nausea, feeling 'out of it'. After taking medication for a while: No noticeable side effects. Felt Great!!!!!! After being on medication for over 3 years: ACNE,Extreme fatigue, lack of motivation, nausea, dizziness, forgetfullness, trouble speaking, agitated/fidgety, irritability, increased appetite | I think effexor may be very effective for SHORT TERM USE. It was indeed effective for me when I began taking it. After being on it for a few years and discovering the withdrawal symptoms if I missed a dose I figured I would be on this medication for life. But recently (now that I have been feeling 'normal' about life for years thanks to effexor) I am noticing side effects. At first I thought all these side effects were seperate issues. It never occured to me they could be from my precious effexor. I looked up Acne and Effexor on Google and it led me to this page and others. After reading other people's experiences I realize that my time with Effexor should be up (well it probably should have stopped 2 years ago). The side effects have outweighed the benefits and it's time for a change (hopefully no medication but we'll see how that goes!) I sure am glad I got one Effexor when I did! But I think it should only be used for approximately 2.5 years. | F | 26 | 6 years | 9/8/2007 | 1 | Depression, anxiety | Didn't really help depression, just dampened feelings. Didn't care about anything or anyone | Withdrawal symptoms are horrific. Nausea,confusion,disoriented,unable to function. Wean off slowly or take forever... | M | 39 | 2 days | 9/8/2007 | 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 | 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 | 3 | Depressed thoughts before sleep | 1.Slowly elevating blood pressure. 2.Spontaneous ejaculations 5 during sleep while increasing or decreasing medication. Per day: 0mg-75mg-150mg-225mg- 150mg-75mg-0mg 3.Withdrawal symptoms : Inner ear neural/electrical signal pulses varying in episode duration, intensity and the frequency of pulse and its dwell period. These pulses affected my sense of balance and hearing ability. My normal hearing is somewhat obscured by the pulse signal while it is occurring. 4.Withdrawal symptom: Ability to fall asleep is severely hampered. Head shaking from side to side wakes me as I am about to sleep, multiple times before sleep eventually comes. 5. Withdrawal symptom: Depression, confused thinking and action, lack of ability to concentrate. Withdrawal symptoms only occurring on last reduction step 75mg-0mg/day. Withdrawal period for me was about 2 weeks | 1.Advisable to take off work if you are withdrawing. 2.Inability to concentrate and dizzyness due to inner ear disturbance may also pose a danger. 3.At beginning of week 2 I was offered Prozac/fluoxetine 20mg. I took 1 that day and 1 on the next. Slept well after the 2 doses. Other withdrawal symptoms also dissapeared within hours of the initial dose of fuoxetine. Ask your doctor for a free professional sample pack it seems to work very neatly. | M | 43 | 2 years | 9/5/2007 | 3 | Depression & GAD | Thumb and forefinger dry & peeling, constant sleepiness, excessive sweating,loss of memory, hives on neck & chest, muscle spasms (jerkiness) in arms & legs when tired, excessive weight gain (25-30 lbs. in 4 months), constant irritability. | Effexor regulated my sleep and took away the body aches. | F | 56 | 17 months | 9/5/2007 | 5 | depression | none, except really bad dreams | F | 27 | 4 months | 9/3/2007 | 2 | Anxiety | Dry mouth,nausea,insomnia or sometimes too much sleepiness ,Extreme headache, difficulty concentrating.... | After reading all these comments i am worried if i should even continue it and also the withdrawal symptoms,,, and seeing all the side effects i would say i was better off anxious.! | F | 23 | 8 days | 9/3/2007 | 5 | ADHD and chronic depression | The first week was pretty bad, sleeping a lot and headaches but after the first week they went away | While not for everyone this is the drug for me I love the stuff, tried other stuff and had to stop due to side effects. I glad to be old self, I have more energy, motivation and just want to get things done versus lying around and being tired. | M | 42 | 1 years | 9/1/2007 | 1 | depression, anxiety | blurred vision, yawning, chills, nervous jittery feeling, nausea | 56 | 1 days | 8/31/2007 | 3 | deppresion and anxiety | I have only been taking this medication for a week so i really cant comment, but I keep reading weight gain and nightmares I know you can't control nightmares, but can't you control hunger? I know alot of this medication increase appetite but can you not control it? | F | 28 | 7 days | 8/30/2007 | 1 | depression, suicidality | diastolic hypertenssion, lack of libido, huge problems with decreasing, sweating | To decrease it in the way that does not cause problems I need to use liquid solution- the decrease is 5-10% at the time. It will take me more than one year to get off it. There are not small enough doses that would help with the process. There is no information available from doctors. | F | 47 | 3 years | 8/29/2007 | 1 | Depression | Hypomania on second day of 37.5mg starting dose, severe panic attack on day 4 required a trip to the ER. | This type of reaction is apparently very rare but not unheard of, especially with people who have some features of bipolar disorder. I know people who have been helped a great deal by this drug, I just wasn't one of them. | F | 17 | 4 days | 8/28/2007 | 5 | M | 13 months | 8/27/2007 | 4 | depression/anxity | non | amizing helped a great deal with depression and horrible anxity keeps me very happy wont ever think to quit it | M | 23 | 1 years | 8/26/2007 | 3 | Depression/Anxiety/Self-Harm | right now, what I'm dealing with is the inability to climax... never noticed that before but since going back on Effexor, I do. Can get very turned on but just no release! Bummer! | I, too, have dealt with withdrawal symptoms on several occasions (prev. took Effexor for ten or so years), and agree that missing a dose can turn one into Mr. Hyde. My current doc agrees that it's one of the hardest meds to come off of, and promises that if we taper, it will be slower than crap. He felt I'd been trying so many different meds that didn't work, and that I hadn't been on a high enough dose of Effexor in the past for it to be effective... so far, seems to be helping keep my mood more stable but I do notice a kind of deadening of emotions- I know that was a concern of mine before when I took it. Better than wanting to OD, I suppose. Am using yoga and chanting to help relax as well. | F | 33 | 2 months | 8/26/2007 | 1 | Anxiety, Depression, OCD | Nauseau, headache, slowed thinking, boring personality, no highs or lows, really numbs you, and malaise. | It's great for anxiety, but I'm a college student, and I certainly cannot take something that is going to slow me down. This would be great for ADHD. You also cannot get excited, or sad about something, you're in one mood the whole time, and it's neither happy nor sad, just a dull personality. | M | 19 | 1 days | 8/26/2007 |