[IMissMaggie]

Anyone have experience with taking Effexor XR (venlafaxine) and clonodine concurrently?

Effexor is very effective for me in the higher dose range because I need the norepinephrine kick that happens at the upper end. However when I reached the maximum, I began having issues keeping blood pressure (BP) down, so I tapered back to 225mg.

Tapering was horrible, but I figured it was worth it to get BP back to borderline hypertension range (instead of the "Oh, my God!" range.)

However, due to another medical condition, I had to begin a corticosteroid, and my BP went back up into the danger zone. I'm already on 2 BP meds, and they wanted it to come down quickly, so they have added clonidine twice a day to losartan (Cozaar) and amlodipine (Norvasc).

Besides the fact that I am severely sleepy on it, clonidine also gives me the fatigue, spaceiness, and overall ****** feeling that I experience when I try to taper off Effexor or when I miss a dose of Effexor.

From reading, I know that clonodine acts beyond the blood brain barrier and that it inhibits the release of norepinephrine. This seems counterproductive when I'm taking Effexor to keep more norepiephrine available to my brain cells....

Has anyone else tried taking both of these drugs together? Does the tendency to fall asleep mid-sentence and the general uneasiness go away with time?

Should I remind the internist that these two may be at odds, or just suffer through?

MM yeah that's something you should definitely talk to your doctor about ASAP.
Hope he/she can work something out.