Effexor

[DH Bill]

Has anyone experienced or have input on withdrawal symptons from stopping effexor cold turkey or tapering off slowly.

BTW I got a call from a branch of my insurance co. back east today telling me they didn't have enough info for the approval of my next 24 weeks of tx. I told them to talk to my Doc as I thought it was all taken care of and they didn't even have the docs name right so I gave info to them. Called nurse and she said didn't know anything about it. Asked if she found out if reduced dose of ribaviron was ok and she said it SHOULD be. Has anyone else been prescribed more than 1200 mg per day?

I HAVE LOST ALL CONFIDENCE IN THIS DOCTOR AND HIS STAFF!!!!!

[Steve']

I dont blame you for loosing confidents in your team ... I got some good info for you Bill ...
<a href="http://www.dr-bob.org/tips/venlafaxine.html#withdrawal">Click Here</a> Also this is the actual site its a very good info source on your drug <a href="http://www.dr-bob.org/tips/venlafaxine.html">Here</a>
I just had my first PCR test & after 25 weeks of Tx ... results next week, nervous but confident the Dragons butt is kicked haha .. try to stay sane Bill ... <b>...Steve...</b>

[ellissg]

My Doctor prescribed 400 mg AM & 400 PM. He told me that was the Max. I think the Peg-Intron is weight based. I'm not sure about the Rebetrol. I weight 235, but it's starting to drop.

I've only been on treatment 4 days and had a "heart recing" episode last night which lasted about 10 minutes.......180 pulse which slowly dropped to 90. Anyone else experience this?

[Tony-z]

I was talking with my Dr last night about which AD to use during treatment. We went over a list of ones he uses. I asked him about Effexor and he informed me that Effexor was in the catgory of the harder SSRI to withdraw from. Make sure you do a slow taper when it is time to come of of the Effexor.


      God Bless.

             Tony Z

[MKAndrew]

Unless a psychiatrist has instructed you to do so, you should never stop any antidepressant suddenly, if you've been taking it for a while.  If you take a few doses and find it intolerable, that's a different story - but if this drug has been part of your daily regimen for more than 6 weeks, it's best to taper off slowly.

RE: RIBAVIRIN: Dose reduction is the number one cause of relapse.  Today's thinking is that it's better to cut back on interferon than ribavirin, if dose reduction is absolutely necessary.  If your doc is talking about reducing ribavirin, it would mean either psych or blood side effects.

In the case of blood-related side effects, your doctor should be aggressive with anemia or low white cell counts.  Procrit and Neupogen are generally used for this.  If you're talking low platelets, dose reduction may be unavoidable.

Even though ribavirin is weight-based, I've always heard two doses for nonresponders - 1200 if you're over 165 lbs, 1000 if under.  These days fewer docs are taking chances with anything under 1000 ribavirin.

Just keep in mind - interferon sucks as monotherapy when it comes to SVR.  That's why we take ribavirin.

Miles Keaton Andrew

[eyehavegr8life]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. I'm in the process of getting a second opinion to a Heptologist. The GI I saw was sooo pessimistic and didn't seem up to date with some statistics on genotype 1s. I found this site and it has some useful info that might help. I'm putting my energy into getting an HMO to allow me to see one of the top Heptologist in So.California out of the HMO Plan. This site opened some thought processes for me to accomplish this! Maybe it can help you "Arm" yourself in attaining what you need!  
Positive thoughts your way, Annette
www.patientsarepowerful.org

[audreywald]

I experienced racing heart with the first shot.  It seemed to be going so fast I was afraid to take my pulse. Also, my blood pressure was very high with the first shot (160/95) I am quite sure this was because I was so scared.

I think it is back to normal now.

[ellissg]

Thanks........it might have been due to anxiety. Hard to tell since it was the fourth evening after my first shot.

[IloSar]

Yes. My doctor did not agree with my assessments and the information I was reading on forums to try and verify what I was going through, so I decided I would go it alone. I went cold turkey effexor and have been off it for 6 weeks now. I was on the lowest dose. In the past I tried to "wean" from it but had severe withdrawal when I missed a dose by only an hour and a half!!! I think I have an idea of what heroin withdrawal feels like now... I did a LOT of reading for about 3 weeks every moment I got, on different forums and found some tips that people tried. The one I picked (but had to alter it for myself as needed) was "go cold turkey and take Benadryl Allergy two 10 mg pills every 4 hours for the first week, 3 times a day in week 2, and twice a day in the third week). I ended up taking 25 mg ('cause I couldn't FIND 10 mg anywhere in our stores) every 3 hours for maybe about 3 weeks. I was concerned for my liver, but more concerned about coping. (It was baaaad. But I was determined this time.) It's been 6 weeks, and I take an occasional Benadryl Allergy (25 mg) once a day, sometimes twice, 'cause it helps me feel better, and I have found sugar has actually helped. I might have gained 2-3 pounds, but don't care. Feel pretty good lately, but still dealing with occasional hot flashes. I can live with those. Good luck to you!!!

[Ekkiemom]

Hi DH AND YES I HAVE!  This is one of the worst meds I have ever tried to even taper off of. I couldn't, period. So needless to say I'm still on it but I'm going to try again as soon as I've SVR'd.

MK- sorry but you have been misinformed about the Riba and relapsing. Lowering doeses doesn't mean you will relapse. The meds today are so powerful that Ribavirin is on its way out of protocols all together very soon. There are other things such as mutations, GT's, etc and the specific protocols for these that will determine if you will SVR or not. No disrespect meant.

[flyinlynn]

Hi IloSar and Ekkiemom

Hey just to let you folks know this post was from 2004 and DH Bill's last post was in 2005.

The good news was his last post said he made SVR so good for you DH Bill wherever you are!

[Ekkiemom]

Yeah I saw that right after I pushed post comment, oh well :)

[axlemax]

I was prescribed venlafaxine 150 mg.  I went from citalapram 40 mg, which I was on, to 20 mg citalapram and 75 mg venlafaxine the fist week.  Then jumped to 150 mg venlafaxine the second week.  The only warning my doctor gave me was that "it was going to change my brain".  I trusted my doctor, been going to her for over 10 years.  I had side effects that are listed but she adamantly proclaimed that it was not the venlafaxine and still does to this day until I finally demanded that I wanted off of this drug....headache, muscle weakness.  She has given me a tapering off schedule.  I tried going cold turkey, second day, and the brain zaps are unbearable and finally broke down and took a 75mg.  I want to try the Benadryl.  Just want to verify that it helped you.