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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by june19 on March 8, 2005, at 0:23:46
Hey, I'm a college student that has dealt with depression off and on for years and has recently been diagnosed as "severely" depressed. I started taking Effexor XR 75 6 weeks ago and after a week of horrible side effects it started to work, only to stop after another two. I was then bumped up to Effexor 150, on which I experienced no side effects and truly started to feel normal again....until a couple days ago when I started lying awake for hours at night, and stopped being able to get out of bed.
Last night after taking my pill, I was arguing with my boyfriend online and suddenly I just felt suicidal. It wasn't so much our argument, but it was as though something had just snapped in my brain. I lied awake all night and then managed to drag myself out of bed to see my therapist, feeling completely out of it and utterly depressed(who immediately noticed a difference), and then my doctor, who wrote me a prescription for Effexor 225mg.
I've taken the first of that new dose and the suicidal feelings are gone, but I'm questionning whether I should continue on 225 or just try 150 for longer. Can I do that? Should I do that? The 150 was working fine and I'm just wondering whether it was just some random incident or I was overtired or something-even though it definitely felt chemical- I'm also concerned, with going up to so high a dosage, and the differences in how it affects my brain.
Can somebody please offer me some advice? My doctor pretty much only prescribes, and my therapist is pretty disconnected from the medication side. Thanks for your patience
Posted by greg diamond on March 8, 2005, at 0:35:34
In reply to Effexor XR- HELP!! should I up my dosage?, posted by june19 on March 8, 2005, at 0:23:46
june - i would maybe try another med altogether. i hated effexor, and i have been on a lot of Ad's. it seems like it's the popular drug right now, but that is immmaterial to you. choose what you want, and if you can't or don't want to deal with serious side effects like suicidality (word?) then you should move on or just do CBT. how much anxiety is intermingled with your depression? that would be my main question. effexor sent me reeling in anxiety and i couldn't hack it. i take remeron with an ssri and even the latter is too much stimulation wise. so think about your general mood and proceed from there. p-docs get obsessive with their choices of meds sometimes. ask for options.
cheers craig
Posted by alexandra_k on March 8, 2005, at 1:46:33
In reply to Effexor XR- HELP!! should I up my dosage?, posted by june19 on March 8, 2005, at 0:23:46
How about contacting your doctor?
Most especially if you think you would do better on a different dosage than the one he has prescribed. No doubt he has reasons for the increase and it would be good to hear those before you decide to do something different from what he has advised.
Posted by Bill LL on March 8, 2005, at 10:40:27
In reply to Effexor XR- HELP!! should I up my dosage?, posted by june19 on March 8, 2005, at 0:23:46
June- There is no doubt in my mind at all that you should stay on the 225 mg dose since you are doing ok on it. When you are in college, that is not the time to experiment to see if you can lower a dosage or switch to a different drug. You could easily mess up your grades.
Stay with what works, which right now is 225 mg Effexor. Despite what you might read, Effexor is a very effective and very safe drug. It has been given to many people and studied extensively.
Also, a lot of people take more than 225 mg of Effexor, so it is not considered to be a high dose.
Posted by Phillipa on March 8, 2005, at 17:06:29
In reply to Re: Effexor XR- HELP!! should I up my dosage?, posted by Bill LL on March 8, 2005, at 10:40:27
Didn't you say you were doing okay on l50mg until the fight and staying up all night? If that's the case, maybe I'd stay on the l50mg. Fondly, Phillipa
This is the end of the thread.
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