Is anyone taking Vensir (venlafaxine)?

[MissBlueskies]

Hi, I went to my doctors last week as I've been feeling increasingly more depressed. I've been on 40mg of citalopram for several months, but for the last couple of months it felt like it wasn't doing anything for me.

I've been prescribed Vensir or Venlafaxine. My GP thought maybe I would be more suited to a SNRI than a SSRI (I don't really understand the difference).

I'm weaning off the citalopram and will start Vensir on Tues at 75 mg then increasing to 75 mg. I was just wondering how other people found it. Has anyone moved from Citalopram to Venlafaxine? Thank you.

Sorry I should have said 75mg increasing to 150 mg

I am, had same pattern although I've been on citalopram twice before (some years ago) and it was fine - but this time I started on 20mg, went to 40 then 60 and still felt awful, so ended up on venlafaxine. I've found it really helpful for my mood - had a few side effects (e.g. Really itchy skin) that went away after 2 weeks - the only long term side effect has been night sweats, but that was only really bad when I was on 225mg venlafaxine.

Also, venlafaxine is usually prescribed for "drug resistant" depression (i.e. after SSRI hasn't worked) - SNRI means it works on your noreadrenaline as well as serotonin (basically just another neurotransmitter).

Effexor 225mg made me utterly manic (after being on 60mg of Cit). It broke my depression but it's a very powerful drug. I had suicide attempts, self harm, night sweats, nightmares, blurred vision and gastro intestinal problems on it. It was very bad for me.

Most people find it very hard to withdraw from. I cold turkeyed and white knuckled through the withdrawal as the side effects were worse than just quitting. It wasn't pretty.

I'd suggest reading up on it. The horror stories on the internet are plentiful, basically it took me a month to get over it and another six months to feel it was totally out of my system. I took it for 9 months at 225mg in total.

I wouldn't take it again. But don't believe the horror stories either. You can take it and it may work, but the longer you use it the worse the 'discontinuation syndrome' is when you stop.

I've taken and come off practically every SSRI without any major problems, Effexor was a totally different ball game. Worse than Diazepam withdrawal in my opinion.

Thank you both for your replies, they are really helpful. ImNot I'm sorry you had such a difficult time on it and I hope you are ok now. I will definitely read up on it. I do think though that SSRIs no longer work for me though as over the past couple of years, since having my baby, I've taken Sertraline, Prozac and Citalopram and none of them seemed to have any effect.

I have heard that withdrawal is awful, although when I have cut my dose down (under Drs instruction) I have not noticed anything. But pure and simply, before venlafaxine I had become so severely depressed that I could not have carried on like that, so the venlafaxine saved my life - and that seemed worth side effects/dependency etc.

Blueskies I'm fine now. The main thing is it did work, it pulled me out off a very severe depression. Good luck with it, you may find its the one for you

I was on it 17 years ago after Prozac and seroxat didn't do much for me. My memory is hazy of back then but I don't remember having problems coming off it.

I was on it for a year before coming off it due to getting pregnant.

I didn't notice any withdrawals but I did have them prior to starting it due to coming off citalopram (which isn't supposed to cause withdrawals) so I don't think I react to coming off AD's in the standard way.

IIRC I had some nausea first starting them but my GP was happy to prescribe anti-sickness meds and it eased off in a few weeks.

Good luck I hope they work for you

thank you all for your replies. I'm going to go ahead with the Venlafaxine. I was told to wean off citalopram, gradually reducing the dose over 9 days then have a week off before starting Venlafaxine. I'm on my first day of no pills and I'm really struggling. I feel really down. My GP said that the citalopram would still be in my system, but given that I'm pretty sure I was quite resistant to citalopram anyway, I'm going to struggle with no pills for a week. For anyone who switched from citalopram to venlafaxine, were to told to have a week of no pills? Thank you

I was on venlafaxine and it made me so exhausted all the time - I literally went back to the GP and said I'd rather go back to feeling down all the time than continue on it. I'm now on a different type that is suiting me much better.

Having said that, I think different people have different experiences with ADs.

I am just about to be weaned off it (and olanzapine) for my bipolar. I found venlafaxine was great except I've put on almost 3 stone since September- I'm bigger now then whilst pregnant!!!

I am and it's the only thing that's worked for me in 20+ years of depression, anxiety and panic disorder. I'm on 350mg.