Posted by SLS on March 30, 2001, at 8:56:14
In reply to Started Effexor XR Today, posted by Cam W. on March 29, 2001, at 21:04:08
Dear Cam,
> Today I start Effexor XR (37.5mg daily and increasing to at least 300mg or more - depending on response - over the next 3 months).
I hope you have decided to continue with Wellbutrin while you add Effexor as an adjunct. It makes for a hell of a combination. I know of someone personally and have seen people on this board experience a robust antidepressant response to the combination who had not when they each had tried both monotherapeutically without success.
When my friend tried 300mg Wellbutrin, she gleaned an improvement in energy and vigilance. It helped to activate her mentally, but did not do much for motivation and anhedonia. When she tried Effexor (dosage?), she experienced motivation to do things with some improvement in anhedonia, but remained anergic and without mental focus and vigilance to accomplish tasks. She actually asked her doctor to try both together, using the soft argument that she felt that each drug had what the other one lacked and that they would be complimentary. She is working happily at a demanding job, planning vacation trips, and smiling.
Zoloft + Wellbutrin also seems to work well.
I cannot produce the data from a recently completed study, and it might not yet be published, but I was told by an assistant professor at New York University that the data demonstrated a significant and distinct advantage in efficacy for Effexor (venlafaxine) over all of the SSRIs. He feels that this reflects well his own clinical experience.
> Thank goodness I know the difference between case studies, case series, post marketing surveillance, restospective studies, naturalistic studies, randomized placebo controlled trials, and other types of articles written about medications and disease states. I also know the merits and limitations of each.
I wish you had the time to contrast the differences between all of these methods of investigation, but I'll settle for one question. Can you describe the details of a naturalistic study? Do the investigators have to work directly with each subject included?
I hope you too find an improvement from Effexor such that you can't help but to smile all day long.
With affliction... Ooops
I mean affection,Scott
poster:SLS
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010327/msgs/58046.html