Posted by Cam W. on March 23, 2001, at 18:16:06
In reply to Re: Real or Mindset - Janie » Janie, posted by Seraphim on March 23, 2001, at 16:54:29
Janie - One of the major problems of developing a drug for marketing is the way the FDA or Health Canada (or other regulatory agency) has to conduct clinical trials for approval (ie the randomized placebo controlled clinical trial). These trials use groups of people who are not indicative of the general population. These people are closely watched for any problems that may arise, unlike "real world" treatments. People in these trials are monitored for compliance and the trials are usually only short term (eg 6 to 8 weeks). While withdrawl was noticed in some of these participants, the true extent of the problem was not realized until after the drug was approved for use.
The problem of Effexor withdrawl has been known for years, it is just that it really reared it's ugly head after the drug was marketed (ie in uncontrolled, naturalistic circumstances). Wyeth-Ayerst should have been more diligent in informing doctors of the extent to which it could occur. I truly believe that they did not know how bad withdrawl could be for some people. Still a vast majority have few, if any withdrawl symptoms and many that do shrug off the effects as a cold or mailaise from stopping the drug.
Still, if handled correctly by a physician, almost all cases of Effexor withdrawl can be minimized. There was a very good article written in 1997 (I believe; perhaps 1996) which showed that intractable Effexor withdrawl could be alleviated using Prozac for a couple of weeks. It is a shame that more doctors are not aware of the extent to which some people get withdrawl symptoms. Much of this is probably because a majority of people do not get severe withdrawl. Hopefully, as time goes on, many more docs will become aware of the extent of the withdrawl syndrome in some people and will monitor withdrawl more closely.
I hope this is of some help in describing the state of affairs in regard to Effexor withdrawl. - Cam
poster:Cam W.
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010319/msgs/57306.html