Vanlafaxine/Effexor - when do the side effects stop, and do they ever?

[GetOrfMoiLand]

Have been on Venlafaxine before, for around 2 months, and the side effects never really went away.

I had dizziness/vertigo with terrible nausea, and also lost my appetite completely. It was very strange.

Mr dr has encouraged me to try them again as nothing else has any effect. Did anyone else have the same symptoms, and how long did they take to go away.

Sorry, Venlafaxine.

Sorry you are going through this GetOrf. How many ADs have you tried?

I've been on quite a few and can say for sure that some of them have much worse side effects than others. Perhaps you just need to try a different kind?

What dose are you taking?
I am on venlafaxine atm and am having trouble sleeping(that's only because I am taking them at the wrong time of day) but I have taken them in the past and the dose was just to high for me, the side effects not pleasant and basically had the nausea and generally felt like a zombie.
The 150 mg dose seems to work better for me.
For me certainly it is a very effective antidepresant after having being tried on numerous other types of medication.
Good luck.

Thanks GetDown and PQR.

I have tried Citalopram and fluoxetine, none of them made a blind bit of difference.

I too can't sleep anyway, rather I get to sleep and then wake up at 2, and can't get back to sleep, so I just lie there and fret.

I am taking 150mg. When does it start working? I have been on this dose a week.

GetOrf - there are plenty of other AD's that you could be offered. The citalopram and fluoxetine are SSRI's and other SSRI's such as sertraline might be one thing they offer you. Venlaflaxine is an SNRI, and generally a 2nd line medication - so there are other ones like that, including mirtazapine (though one side effect of that is it causes sleepiness, so often taken at night) or escitalopram (fairly new) and duloxetine. So perhaps ask the Gp to consider other ones if you still struggling. I had hard side effects, eventually they were ok, but changing doses or coming off them is horrible, very horrible in fact due to the half life of the drug.

It made me so ill with one tablet I refused to carry on. I get air hunger (uncontrable, painful yawning) and panic attacks. Citalopram made me feel like I was having out of body experiences - I was sat on the sofa with my body totally turned off like I was asleep but my brain was on overdrive so it felt like I wasn't in my body. Again I only managed one day!

If they make you feel more ill then don't take them and ask for something different.

Just remembering now, this time round I very gradually built the dose up, venlafaxine do 37.5mg tablets as well, the jump between 75mg and 150mg is a bugger to deal with.
Side effects lasted for me a couple of weeks.
If you have been started straight away on the 150mg dose, i'm not surprised you are suffering, took me a couple of months to get up to this dose now.
Any other questions, just ask it's horrible but does pass.

I agree with keziah - the other ones you have tried are both SSRIs - it could be you just need a different type. Some of the older style tri-cyclics work in a completely different way, and may suit you much better. Keziah mentioned mirtazapine - I took this for over a year and found it worked brilliantly for me. And I virtually had a phobia of ADs because of what citalopram did to me.

I should say that mirtazapine is an SNRI, not a tri-cyclic.

I wasn't able to stay on Venlafaxine for the exact reasons you mention OP, I felt like I was falling/going to throw up all the time.

Luckily, I get on OK with SSRIs so am on Sertraline, but venlafaxine made my life a misery.

Effexor made me nauseous and gave me the most debilitating headaches I've ever had. I felt so ill for the whole time I was taking it that the doctor had me go cold turkey coming off them and I had a week of nasty, withdrawl symptoms too!!

I went back to Fluoxitine but on a higher dose.

Thanks everyone.

Confuddled - I have exactly what you described with the insane yawning, air hunger describes it perfectly. I had a strange day where I thought I wasn't breathing enough oxygen in, yawned constantly and made my jaw ache. Thankfully that part has passed.

I still feel very nauseous - and I have absolutely no appetite, the thought of eating is strangely unappealing (I am normally a glutton). I have to force myself to eat and drink.

I also have been having a weird sort of bursts of manuc activity - dashing around the house doing things at high speed, which is rather unlike me.

I will not stop them dead, however I have a dr appointment in 2 weeks, so I will persevere with them until then.

Keziah - when you say 2nd level medication, what does that mean. I know that these are SNRIs, which work differently from SSRIs. The dr said that Venlafaxine is generally 'stronger' and used for more severe depression - is that correct?

I was on the maximum recommended dose of Venlafaxine for over a year, after Fluxotine and Citalopram didn't work, it was described to be as the next level up from SSRIs. My side effects actually got worse to the point where I decided to come off the medication.

I also had periods of manic energy from time to time, but the worst side effect for me was the 'brain zaps' these are like electric shocks in your brain, it's really hard to describe but they were grim.

I took the week off work went to bed and came off them cold turkey, which is not recommended I just wanted the drugs out of me. for three days it was like having flu on LSD then another week of having flu, then a month of feeling totally crap.

I got brain zaps for about 4 months after I came off them. I was so much better being off them though.

I was angry for a long time with my GP for prescribing a horrible horrible drug so glibly.

Everyone has different reactions to drugs, some people seem to do ok on it, but I would never recommend it to people.

I have read that a single dose of fluoxitine can really help with the withdrawal.

I replaced it with counselling/healthy eating/exercise. which has been hit and miss, but better than the drugs.

I've been on this for about three years on and off - 75mg atthe moment, although am sometines taking two a day as going througha shitty situation..I digress. I find that the wierd 'brain freeze' kicks in if I miss couple of days, but to be honest, it's the only one that has ever worked for me. Good luck!

Getorf - yes, a 2nd line medication is usually only used after citalopram and fluoxetine. But there are a range of 2nd lines, such as venlaflaxine, mirtazapine, duloxetine, escitalopram. Plus the trycyclics. So yes, generally they are stronger, hence they have usually more/worse side effects. Although venlaflaxine up to 150mg is actually an SSRI, it only has its SNRI effect above that dose.

Thanks everyone.

I am finding the side effects a lot less grim now, tbh, however I have read up on this drug extensively and it seems that the withdrawal is hideous. Which makes me wonder. But I will carry on with it for a month and see if it helps.

I still have slight nausea and feel a little otherworldy for a bit after I have taken it (I am not on the extended release tablets), however the most striking side effect is that fact that I have absolutely no appetite. I have to force myself to eat and drink, I am mildly hungry but the thought of chewing and swallowing something seems utterly disgusting. I couldn't eat something chewy like a bread roll if you paid me. However I have read that loss of appetite is reasonably common and wears off.

The brain zaps sound awful, I hope I don't get those.

Withdrawal was awful. I did go cold turkey but it was on Doctors advice. I basically had a week where trying to lift myself off the sofa was impossible because the world span and I had no strength at all. I got the shakes too. It was really scary.

I hope it's better for you Getorf.

Getoff, I'm on 225mg of Venlafaxine. Do you take it at the same time every day? Because I find that helps with the side effects. Mention the periods of feeling very active to your gp, occasionally venlafaxine can cause a kind of mania, have experienced this myself and it's not nice. Your dose may need tweaking.

I take 75mg in the morning, and another at about 6ish. Can't take it just before bed as it makes me feel edgy and I can't get to sleep.

Do you find it has helped Memoo? I don't want to go through this strangeness for no reason.

I was on Venlafaxine for 2 years. My dose was built up gradually, I started off on 75mg, then one 75mg tablet in the morning and one 37.5 in the evening and then two 75mg one in the morning, one in the evening.

It was a few years ago now, but I don't remember any nasty side effects.
I think they took around 2 weeks before they started working (or before I noticed a difference in my mood) but I had no nausea or anything like that.

I did suffer the air hunger and a constant need to swallow, mainly at night. This went on for many months but not constantly.

When the time came to come off them I was weaned off slowly and did not feel any worse the wear for it apart from some dizzyness.

They worked for me. I hope they work for you, or if not, you find something that works.
I can sympathise with the waking at 4 and fretting. I did that too. (still do now to some extent) This did not completely stop but did reduce greatly once the Venlafaxine kicked in.

It helped my depression loads getoff, although it didn't help my anxiety much, have to take buspirone for that. If you are struggling to sleep it would be better if you could take the full amount in one dose in the morning rather than having a second dose later in the day, maybe speak to your gp about it. It took a good 2-3 months before the side effects subsided and now I have non at all although I do get the head zaps if I am late taking it.