Effexor XR?

My wife is currently on effexor XR, she's been on it for around 2 years or longer.  Can someone tell me if they ever got off of it and how they got it done.  I remember when she first started taking it, one of her sx's was the strange dreams.  She tried to get off cold turkey and she started having even stranger dreams, she couldn't get off.  Is it a taper very slowly approach?  She has gone down to 37.5 mgs. a day from 75 mgs., so now she wants to move onward and out.  I know someone had brought this subject up before.  Thanks for looking.  

[Andiamo1]

I started a post on this a year ago.  I had a hard time getting off myself; I dropped the dose to 37.5 for a month and then every other day for another month.  It was still difficult to stop, but I did it.  I had side effects for a month after I stopped.

I probably had a worse time of it than most people.  It is difficult though.

Eric

[ladybug52]

If you google Effexor, you'll find a petition from individuals that:

"have or are experiencing "often ignored" serious side effects of this medication. And that thousands of patients in the US and worldwide are unable to discontinue Effexor or even reduce dosage due to the rapid onset of severe withdrawal-like symptoms which often initiates before a patient begins dose reduction due to the short half-life of Effexor."

This a/d has been brought up before, and is generally considered the most difficult a/d to discontinue.

Good luck to your wife,
Bug

[fretboard]

I'll look for that thread Andiamo and a TY to ladybug.  One of my wife's biggest issues with this anti-depressant is weight gain.  She has gained, maybe 35 pounds since being on it and she can't seem to lose it.  She has eliminated all her supplements, like vitamin C, magnesium and around 8 or 9 different vitamins or supplements she used to take.  She know believes that she has gained that weight from the effexor xr.  I think she's right, has anyone else experienced this problem with anti-depressants?  later

[jdwithhcv]

Here's a thread from early May about A/Ds and weight gain.  Hope this helps.

[jdwithhcv]

Ok, brain fog moment!  Here's the thread

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/507470?post_id=post_2857930

[fretboard]

TY for that direction, my wife Ty's as well.  God Bless