Effexor/Venlafaxine

Seqoya · Feb 22, 2020, 01:35 PM

Anyone had experience with Effexor/Venlafaxine? I'm currently taking 112.5 mg which will be increased to 150mg.

I switched to Effexor from Lexapro in a Psychiatric Hospital started at 75 mg then after five days went up to 112.5.

Now the outpatient psychiatrist is waiting three weeks to increase it to see how I do especially since I've had hypomania. He says 150 is an average dose although in some cases it can go higher. But with people with mania they like to keep it lower like around 150 at the highest.

I think it's helping and I'm tolerating it and I'm not having side effects. I'm just wondering what others experiences are.

Schizoaffective Disorder Bipolar Type
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with Dissociative Features

Lithium
Effexor
Rexulti
Trazodone (For sleep)
Prasozin (High blood pressure med for nightmares)

Seqoya · Feb 22, 2020, 09:22 PM

I was also told by the psychiatrist in the hospital that it might very well help my extreme PMS. I don't know about that yet.

WastingAsparagus · Feb 26, 2020, 10:37 PM

Yeah, I have experience with venlafaxine er (Effexor XR). I currently take 450mg of it, but I understand the doc's concern about it causing mania. I've never been manic (though I have schizoaffective disorder, so I suppose I could get manic at some point (let's hope not)).

Anyway, Effexor, at the right dose, gave me a huge boost. I know I can attribute some of getting out of my worst depressive episodes to Effexor. Seriously, it's a good med if you can tolerate it well.

What helped me with being successful with Effexor was getting a blood level of it. I learned that I am a fast metabolizer of Effexor, which means I have to take relatively more of it compared to people who metabolize it regularly. Armed with that knowledge, my pdoc and I were able to raise it to a level that was and still is good for me.

Hope that helps. Also sometimes they pair it with Remeron. I currently take both Remeron and Effexor for my depression and that combination lifted me out of one of the worst episodes I've ever had.

Just some ideas.

splitimage · Feb 27, 2020, 08:16 AM

I take Effexor and am on 375 mg of it. I like it. I had some start up side effects that were a bit unpleasant, but they went away - about the only one I have left, is it raises my body temp, so I'm almost always hot.

I do think it also helped me get through menopause symptom free - it's prescribed at low doses for helping some women with menopause, so it could very well help with pms.

Good luck with it.

splitimage

peacelizard · Mar 09, 2020, 04:51 PM

I took it for a few years maybe a year or two ago. It was the first SNRI I ever tried and I thought it did a pretty good job of managing the depression I had at the time, but only took the edge off my social anxiety (at best). Over time, I was on a couple of different doses —150mg, 225mg, 300mg — but I mostly stayed at 225mg, as 150mg didn't seem enough and 300mg,while not having any noticeable side effects, didn't seem to do anything, so I didn't see the point in staying on it. And the only side effect I seemed to notice was a couple days worth of pretty annoying dry mouth, but it never stayed. Ultimately, I came off it a while back and switched to Cymbalta. I can't remember the exact motivation, but it was either because I felt like it was crapping out or I was tired of the less-than-stellar social anxiety performance and decided I was willing to upset the apple cart.

Obviously, ymmv, especially with your schizoaffective vs my unipolar depression, but as long as you're careful and on a good footing mood stabilizer-wise I don't see why it couldn't help.

peacelizard · Mar 09, 2020, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by splitimage

I take Effexor and am on 375 mg of it. I like it. I had some start up side effects that were a bit unpleasant, but they went away - about the only one I have left, is it raises my body temp, so I'm almost always hot.

I do think it also helped me get through menopause symptom free - it's prescribed at low doses for helping some women with menopause, so it could very well help with pms.

Good luck with it.

splitimage

Anecdotally, an NP prescribed it to my mom after her cancer diagnosis, treatment, and pretty immediate stoppage of HRT (which obviously uncovered the hot flashes). Suffice to say, it didn't do anything and when she listened to the stupid NP instead of me and stopped it abruptly, she got brain zaps for some time.

I have seen at least one incredibly small study (n=6 maybe?) showing venlafaxine having some effect on hot flashes, but it was impossible to tell if it was a truly significant result that could be applied more broadly, placebo effect, or some other artifacting.

Hales00 · Mar 09, 2020, 08:55 PM

I was on 150mg of effexor once a day no side effects. I still felt depressed and it wasn't proving my suicidal ideation. So I was taken off of it and out on another med, I don't remember what the other was. But then my psychiatrist and I'd ecided I was better of effexor but might need something to help more as well. So i restarted 150mg effexor and it gave me TERRIBLE heat/nausea flashes.

MDDguy · May 29, 2020, 09:15 PM

So happy to hear these upbeat experiences!
I was taking Effexor for over 15 years(mostly 225mg daily) and it was rock solid. However, I just went through almost a year of weaning off of it...stopping completely in January. So many factors led me to another relapse recently and now I am titrating back on Effexor(Ven)...currently up to 112.5 daily.
I won't lie. I am really white knuckling it right now...desperately hoping that my body will respond to it favorably again!

TrueBeliver · Nov 04, 2020, 04:59 PM

I am currently talking 75mg of Effexor coupled with 1mg of Rexulti. To be quite honest, I am not really sure of the benefit that I am getting from either. I go back and forth between the idea of just increasing my dosage (I am on relatively low doses of both) or just weaning off both medications under the supervision of my psych.

First post here - excited to join the community.

Lunatyc · Nov 10, 2020, 06:57 AM

I was on 300mg of venlafaxine. I naturally have a fast metabolism. I was whippet thin before medication. My friend says I have the constitution of an ox to be able to tolerate seroquel. : D I know people who find anti depressants too sedating. I was on a combination of mirtazapine at night and venlafaxine in the morning.
I am now on sertraline instead of venlafaxine. The venlafaxine worked very well when I was on it which was about four years or so. Venlafaxine has a short half life making coming off it difficult. The doctors usually use cross titration to help people switch.
When halting venlafaxine I had strange pins and needles sensation in my legs and the brain zaps and some physical after effects like fatigue and sweating. Once the sertraline, which has a longer half life, built up and took effect I was ok and the withdrawal side effects faded.

Lunatyc · Nov 10, 2020, 07:32 AM

I forget to say it was Venlafaxine XR I was on. Its a bumpy ride when it is cut or stopped. There are some real horror stories from newspaper articles about people coming off Venlafaxine. But if you switch to another anti-d, the new drug replacing it should prevent the most debilitating withdrawal symptoms so I would say try not to worry about it, if the Venlafaxine is working for you at the time. Even though sertraline is an Ssri and Ven was an snri, i coped perfectly fine.

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