Posted by Sean9 on April 1, 2003, at 11:13:03
In reply to Re: Effexor Withdrawal is Serious, posted by lovemybabies on March 24, 2003, at 16:09:08
LMB, I think most people would agree, Effexor is effective for treating depression. Probably why it's reputedly the number 1 seller. Your experiences on/off may have been tolerable, and the two people you know personally may have been the same. But, just consider, you may be the minority. In fact, how do you know if your experience going off is what most people will/would experience. The truth is, Effexor doesn't publish the % of people experiencing disconintuation symptoms (read their lit carefully, it only says that "Discontinuation effects are well known to occur with antidepressants."). They didn't publish the statistics on the number, % of, frequency, duration, or severity of the withdrawal symptom group. And I'm not mentioning that to start a conspiracy, but only to say that we haven't been fully informed what the chances and degrees of withdrawal sypmtoms are in getting off this drug. Proof in the pudding, why are there so many postings with people experiencing what they consider to be intolerable and extreme withdrawal symptoms for a drug that is classified as a non-narcotic and non-addicitve?
To your other point, about the power of suggestion if a Doctor were to mention the seriousness of withdrwal symptoms, that is a valid opinion. HOwever, it is absolutely the Doctor's responsability to give full disclosure, regardless of that Doctor's feelings towards sensitivity and unfortunate consequences' of the power of suggestion. And as my opinion, I think the reason why the medical community is not giving due warning to new users of Effexor isn't deliberate, it's because the Wyeth Laboratories doesn't disclose. Even if only 1% of users (that's a made up number) experience what you and I woudl consider to be debilitating symptoms, shouldn't the makers of Effexor at least publish and disclose that rate?
The FDA Med Watch Report, online complaint form:
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch/
poster:Sean9
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030329/msgs/215051.html