Posted by SLS on September 29, 2006, at 6:04:04
In reply to Re: I signed the BAN EFFEXOR petition » notfred, posted by tizza on September 29, 2006, at 4:38:31
> Notfred you were one of the lucky ones, IMHO!!
> Notfred you are so lucky,> I'm only one of the thousands upon thousands who have reported this hell,
> I'm glad you got off with minor discomfort, but I didn't, so please let everyone explain their personal stories.
I would like to hear yours.
How did you go about discontinuing Effexor?
Did you try to discontinue Effexor abruptly and go "cold turkey" at any point? What kind of taper did you use? Over how many days or weeks? Did you skip days between doses?
The last lowest dosages are the most difficult to reduce and discontinue. How did you deal with them?
How long did the withdrawal symptoms last after you discontinued Effexor?
It is frustrating to hear these stories on the Withdrawal board because it is always after the fact that people arrive there. It is the minority of people who come there asking how to go about discontinuing medication before they start. Most of them have already gone off "cold turkey".
> I'm not trying to be negative but this particular drug really, really messed me up
How so? What permanent changes has it produced?
There is a big problem here that is not being addressed properly, and it is not the responsibility of the patient to address it. Effexor is not the only drug that produces this SRI discontinuation syndrome. Similar withdrawal symptoms occur when discontinuing all of the SSRIs and Cymbalta. Effexor, Paxil, and Cymbalta have emerged as being particularly problematic. This is probably because they have additional activity at the NE uptake pumps. The drug companies and doctors have failed in their responsibilities to acknowledge this phenomenon and come up with a solution for how to discontinue the medication in a way that minimizes withdrawal effects. For now, doctors are failing to instruct patients explicitly how to taper medication.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:689186
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060927/msgs/690127.html