Posted by Racer on April 19, 2006, at 13:52:04
In reply to Positive experiences with Effexor, Anyone?, posted by Violetskyye on April 18, 2006, at 20:36:21
A lot of people on these boards have had good experiences with Effexor, and some have even stopped it without much in the way of withdrawal symptoms. Everyone reacts differently, so there's no way to predict what your experience will be.
In general, Effexor is more effective for a lot of people than the SSRIs, probably because it targets both serotonin and norepinephrine; and it has far fewer side effects than the TCAs, which also target a broader range of neurotransmitters. Yes, it is known for a particularly nasty withdrawal syndrome, but most ADs have some withdrawal symptoms associated with them. So, it's a trade off. And, if it works for you, that probably outweighs the downside of potential withdrawal, right?
As for withdrawal, there are a lot of things that you and your doctor can do to reduce the discomfort when and if the time comes. Possibly the most effective is taking a bit of Prozac at the end, because Prozac's long half life means it's effectively self-tapering. It's Effexor's short half life that causes the withdrawal, including the withdrawal that will start if you are late enough on any dose. My own experience wiht that was that I had to miss at least two doses before I had any problems, but again -- your mileage is likely to vary.
Also, and this is probably better incentive to try it, I didn't have trouble missing a dose or two until I'd been on it for more than a year. If you try it, and it isn't effective for you, you can probably taper down pretty quickly.
So, the potential up side is that it might be more effective with fewer side effects than the alternatives; the potential downside is that you might have some withdrawal symptoms when and if you try to come off of it, but those are likely to be mild if you come off it within the first six to twelve months, and they can be minimized.
Does that help?
poster:Racer
thread:634595
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060417/msgs/634813.html