very bad reaction to antidepressant, what does this sound like?

[abraham145]

Hi i had a really bad reaction to effexor 75mg. I took one pill and couldnt sleep that night until 5am. I wake up 5hrs later and the first thing i noticed was severe nasal congestion. I stand up and my heart starts racing and i get an extreme panic attack. I had a very dry mouth, feeling very short of breath, extreme dizzyness, numb all over my face and body, my lower neck hurt and felt very tight. It was so bad i went to the er. At the er they injected a steroid and some medicine to calm me down. I feel a little better but i still had alot of trouble breathing and eventually went home and thought i was feeling better, i stopped the medicine. The next morning i wake up in two hours after falling asleep and as soon as i stood up the whole episode repeated but i took two pills of xanex and calmed down. My chest still felt very tight and it was very hard ro breath. The breathing trouble persisted the whole day. The night after, i couldnt sleep due to the very dry mouth, very congested, neck felt very tight and feel very hard to breath(like im breathing through a tiny straw). This is extremely painful and uncomfortable feeling. I go to urgent care the next day and was getting dizzy nonstop dispite taking xanex before i went. Urgent care told me i sgould go to er again for the chest tightness but i didnt because everytime i go to er they do nothing for me so i went home. Its been 6 days now and these symptoms come and go, mainly the breathing trouble. These symptoms are simular if i smoke weed or even around someone smoking weed. But with weed, they more mild and go away within 24 hours. My doctor thinks i had an allergic reaction but i dont think thats the case. She gave me another antidepressant, and im very scared to take it. I have mild depression but its manageable. Im mainly suffering from nasal congestion that has persisted for 2 years, and allergy shots, 2 surgeries, and alot of differant steroid sprays hasnt helped me at all. I became a little depressed because of this reason and thats why i took this medicine. Could this be a bad reacrion to the medicine due to another underlying cause? Do these sound like classical side effects? Im considering visiting a nuerologist but idk. What would you do if you where in my place? I also sleep really long hours and have a really hard time waking up, and im always feeling weak.

[nursegirl6572]

I agree with Paxiled's advice/suggestions.  Effexor can be quite stimulating, and these kinds of initial reactions aren't that uncommon.  MY guess is that you had an anxious reaction to how it made you feel.  The fact that some of your symptoms are kind of hanging around also is suspicious (IMO) for anxiety.  It's kind of like a traumatic reaction.

I don't agree with the possibility of serotonin syndrome, for a few reasons.  One, one dose of a medication would not put one at risk, and two, the doctors at the ER would have certainly recognized the symptoms and ruled it out.  Serotonin syndrome is a condition that many people worry about, but the reality is, it's quite rare.

My guess is that you had an anxious reaction, maybe even a panic attack to a stimulating medication.  Keep communicating with your doctor, and I agree with trying some kind of therapy, or other methods to treat your mild depression, before turning to medications.

Hang in there, keep us posted!

[bbaggins]

It's possible that you had the beginnings of serotonin syndrome. Some of the symptoms you mentioned fall under this. Not sure if you were prescribed the Effexor or were self-medicating, but if you are put on Effexor for the first time, they usually start you out at 37.5mg then bump it up after a week or two. Starting out at 75mg can be too much for you.

[Paxiled]

First of all, if you have mild depression you really shouldn't be fooling around with these very strong meds that alter normal brain function at all.  Better to try therapy, exercise, anything else before turning to medication.  Second, Effexor is in the class of drugs called snris, which target two neurotransmitters directly and choline indirectly:  serotonin, much like the ssris, but also norepinephrine, which is basically adrenaline.  That second thing makes a lot of people have very anxious reactions to Effexor; this is one of the most difficult meds to both take and stop taking of all of them, Paxil being the other most difficult, but all drugs in the snri class can be very stimulating.  As for your allergy problems, really, doctors aren't going to help you much here, they will only cause long-term harm.  Nobody really knows how to fix allergies, but natural medicine at least won't harm you.  Allergies are an autoimmune disorder, and doctors do not know how to help your immune system.  Natural medicine does have some things that can help tamp down an overactive immune system, but with allergies, well, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  The best one can do is avoid foods and toxins that aggravate allergies by making the immune system work even harder, and steroidal medications kill off some of your beneficial bacteria that protects your immune system, so they make it work even harder still, the last thing you want if you have allergy problems.  No antidepressant in the world will help your allergies, that's not what they're designed to do, and another thing about medications in general and particularly snris is they are somewhat or a lot liver toxic, which again adds to stress on the immune system.  Snris are much more liver toxic than ssris, so again, a bad class of drugs for an allergy sufferer in general if your depression is just mild.  I think time will take care of your bad reaction, but I'd find another way to treat this than antidepressants, and particularly snris.

[Everlastingocd]

This is what I have done myself. I always look up the med being used on rxlist. Look at the possible side effects, and see if they ring a bell.

http://www.rxlist.com/effexor-drug.htm

I had to give up trying certain kinds of meds because I was feeling bad side effects from all the ones I had tried. But, just because one doesnt work right, doesnt mean that another wont. Good luck!!