Venlafaxine should I increase

[Catsservant]

Hi all, I was taking Paroxetine which worked great until last Christmas when I started to feel anxious and depressed, so then I increased my dose twice without any change to my anxiety and depression.

i then switched to citalopram but after an initial improvement to my depression this then seemed to stop working even though i was on the highest dose.

I started venlafaxine almost 4 weeks ago now, titrating up to 112.5mg for the last 2 weeks but my GP wants me to increase again next week.

my depression has improved and the panic attacks are nowhere near as frequent or as bad as before but my anxiety is still quite bad.
my GP would like me to increase again next week to 150mg but I don’t know if I should wait longer or if that dose would work better.

any advice or experience would be much appreciated thanks

I went up to maximum dose when I was on it. It is astonishingly effective once you're over the initial side effects.

@Catsservant

I don't know anything about the particular medication you are on so not sure how helpful my answer will be...

I am personally pretty cautious so would probably hold off a little bit longer to see how the current dose works out for you, unless you are only on a very low dose still and that is why the GP is suggesting the increase.

Also my caution is due to my experience of bad side effects with dose increases, of you are not having an issue with that then I can see why you might want to push up and see full benefit quicker.

Glad you are feeling positive effects from this medication.

Please update with what you decided and how you get on x

@Catsservant how are you getting on? Did you decide to increase?