Venlafaxine tips/experiences?

Hi all,

I saw my doctor today and she has prescribed me an XR version of venlafaxine (Effexor) starting at 37,5 mg and going up to 75.
Anybody been on that? How did you find it and what side effects did it have? She said I may get headaches, feel nauseous or lose my appetite.

It does sound promising. She explained that it works on the serotonergic, dopaminergic and norepinephrine regulation in the brain. Sounds promising.

In other news, I only have to be on lithium for 4 more weeks. Yay!

I was on it for a couple of years, primarily for depression but also social anxiety. Helped a good amount with the depression, but only took the edge off my anxiety. Most of the time I stayed at 225mg, but went up as high as 300mg at one point (more out of curiosity than anything) to see if it'd affect my anxiety at all.

After a month or two, it didn't seem like it was doing much, if anything, and didn't see a point in staying on that high of a dose for minimal improvement, so I dropped back down to 225mg. When I finally decided to cross-taper to something else (duloxetine), I'm not sure if the med was becoming less effective, stopped working completely, or what I was dealing with at the time was more societal than biological and so the med just appeared to lose efficacy.

Either way, I found the transition to duloxetine surprisingly problem-free, but I was aware of how bad potentially coming off of it could be.

As far as side effects go, the only one I really noticed was dry mouth, which lasted a few days when I initially started it, and then again every time I increased the dose, but ultimately went away. Other than that, the only other thing I noticed was when I went too long between doses; then I'd feel lightheaded and sometimes get a headache.

I take Effexor XR and have for 20+ years. It has been a great med for me and highly recommend it. I am at a very high dose of 600 mg. but that shows you that there is movement if it starts giving out. Glad your happy about going off lithium. I have never been on it so don't really know much about it.

Take care!

Took it for a long time. I did get elevated blood pressure so we switched to duloxetine. Did not get any other side effects even with higher doses.

I've been on it for almost 20 years.

When I started it, I got bad headaches and dizziness, but they went away after a couple of weeks and then reappeared as I increased the dose.

I'm on 375 mg daily.

splitimage

Thank you for all the replies!

I appreciate the input. I will look out for any strange effects it has on me and report to my doc.
I am glad to be getting off of the lithium, as it has a few effects on me. (acne, constipation and tremors)
Yes, I am starting a new medication so essentially not going on less meds at the end of the day, but it won't be forever. Just until I work through some stuff.

So there is hope!

On 75 mg for 10 yrs with no side effects. I think withdrawal can be hard.

Thanks! Yeah I have read that withdrawal can be... intense!