[signs]

Hello,

I'm wondering if somebody has positive Effexor experience for GAD.

I started on 75mg for 2 weeks, my anxiety didn't decrease that much but it helped my depression a little, giving more energy.

And another question. Does it help with anxiety physical and somatic symptoms?

[mikrw33]

Originally Posted by signs

Hello,

I'm wondering if somebody has positive Effexor experience for GAD.

I started on 75mg for 2 weeks, my anxiety didn't decrease that much but it helped my depression a little, giving more energy.

And another question. Does it help with anxiety physical and somatic symptoms?

I personally had a semi-positive experience with Effexor XR with both depression and panic disorder (sorta similar to GAD). It practically eliminated my depression and anxiety the first time I took it, but the problem with that medicine was that the dose would wear off and I would have to rapidly increase the dose. But that was my experience, so don't let that deter you from taking it and trying it on your own—everyone is subject to their own experience with medicines!

75 mg is a pretty low dose, and 2 weeks isn't a very long time for it to have time to work. I'd give it a couple of more weeks to see if it's going to work for you, and then see your doctor and decide what to do. You may need to go up to 150 mg to get the full benefit of Effexor. You see, 37.5-75 mg basically behaves like just an SSRI, but at 150-225 mg, it behaves like an SNRI as it's touted to be. As you approach 300-375 mg, it starts to act as a triple reuptake inhibitor (SNDRI) (albeit very weakly inhibiting reuptake of dopamine). But I digress, you will likely not need these super high doses for GAD. 75-150 mg should suffice. In fact, the noradrenergic reuptake inhibition may actually make your anxiety worse. But you never know unless you try it!

As for the physical and somatic symptoms of anxiety, you may need an additional medicine like a beta-blocker, most likely propranolol or pindolol. Propranolol is the most commonly used for anxiety. Pindolol is used to accelerate the response of antidepressants due to its presynaptic 5-HT1A antagonism/low intrinsic activity partial agonism (functional antagonism) which breaks the negative feedback loop of serotonin release inhibition (i.e., antagonism of the presynaptic 5-HT1A receptors disinhibits serotonin release, accelerating the antidepressant/anxiolytic response). For propranolol, usually 10-20 mg once-twice daily is all that is needed as needed. For pindolol, 5 mg is all that is needed and is usually taken daily, but sometimes 7.5-10 mg is needed.

I hope this helps! Best of luck to you, and keep us posted on how you're doing!