Anybody been on Venlafaxine?

[citalopram]

The ANP at the surgery wants me to start on Venlafaxine. A lowish dose. She says they've had good results with it.

I'm currently on Sertraline after having to stop citalopram due to the side effects. I had previously been taking this for around five years.

Venlafaxine has a bad reputation amongst antidepressant veterans and many urge people never to start taking it. The sertraline doesn't seem to be working for me and I still feel depressed. The ANP has just upped the dose to 100mg this morning and told me to see how I get on.

My main concern is about weight gain as I have gained about two stone with the citalopram.

Any thoughts?

I'm a long-term user of Venlafaxine. Was on Prozac for years but, when that stopped working for me, they switched me.

The drug gets a lot of bad press but it's really worked for me. No problems with weight gain. I just have to remember to take it at around the same time every day or I get all floaty-headed.

I didn't gain any weight on it, took 300mg daily for 3 years. I have reduced very slowly over the last 15 months down to 75mg without any real problems as well. Venlafaxine really worked well for me, but everyone is different tbh.

Venlafaxine is a great drug for symptom control and helped my depression very well buy coming off it is a killer. It needs very slow withdrawal or I got horrible head rushes and sounds like a whip cracking in my brain. Horrible

Wow Jammy, have never found anyone who took a bigger dose than mine (150mg).

Thanks for these.

I've been told I'll be on 75mg twice a day.

Mimi I'm not alone I'm afraid!

Worked for me brilliantly. Have just gone up to 300. Been on it over 10 years. Saved my life.

Coming of it can be hard but I reduced gradually.

Agree with advice of taking it same time each day

Seems a bit odd that your ANP wants you to try venlafaxine when you've only been on the lowest dose of sertraline. 50mg does nothing for a lot of people. It did nothing for me - once I was on 100mg I felt a million times better. I even felt like I could take on the world at some points.

Personally, I would see how you go for a couple of months with 100mg sertraline. Chopping and changing drugs all the time isn't fun and it's pointless IMO, to put you through withdrawal symptoms when a simple dose increase might help.

I've been on venlafaxine 75mg once a day for 7 weeks. No weight gain so far but I was on fluoxetine before that and lost about a stone and apparently it can take a few weeks to get out of your system. I'm doing okay and haven't felt the need to increase my dose yet. I've also been on sertraline and mirtazapine in the past and venlafaxine is the only AD I've been on where I haven't had side effects in the first few weeks. Venlafaxine is generally a very good drug so I think it's worth a try if the higher dose of sertraline doesn't work.