Be careful with that high dose of Effexor, let me tell you my story.

My wife Barbara died 12/16/03, the Maryland State Medical Examiner ruled that she died from the results of a seizure disorder.

Barbara was an epileptic and bipolar, in the course of our twenty year marriage I witnessed her have many seizures, in the months before she died she told me that she felt like she had several seizures in her sleep.

Barbara's psychiatrist treated both her epilepsy and her bipolar, it is my belief that the meds that she was given for her acute depression might have lowered her seizure threshold and precipitated her fatal seizure.

Barbara had been taking Effexor XR and Remeron for two years, three months before her death she got pretty depressed and some of her meds were increased, her psychiatrist raised her Effexor XR from 450 mgs to 600 mgs, and her remeron from 45 mgs to 90 mgs at night.

In addition to the Effexor and the Remeron her psychiatrist also had my wife taking a cocktail that consisted of 20 mgs of adderal twice a day, 3 mgs. of risperdal, 900 mgs. of trileptal, 6 mgs. of clonazepam and 10 mgs of ambien at night.

My wife developed several side effects, instead of looking at her medicines and adjusting them she was provided with other medicines.

She got pretty severe headaches and was given two nasal sprays, imitrex nasal spray, and Stadol to use as needed , she developed high blood pressure and was given 32 mgs. of atacand, she was often complaining of vomiting and nausea - for that she was prescribed 30 mgs of prevacid.

It has been suggested to me that my wife was taking way too many medicines and that this polypharmacy mix might have created the conditions that led to her fatal seizure. Given her medications and their dosing I was advised by a physician relative to have a malpractice attorney review her medical records and her care. The records were received over nine months ago and are still under review.

Am still waiting for some sort of an answer, though my bride died over a year ago there is no feeling of closure, I never thought my wife's seizures would kill her, always figured that her shrink knew what she was doing too.