Posted by DepNYer on March 9, 2004, at 14:54:42
In reply to Re: Day 55 of Effexor withdrawal symptoms-my experienc, posted by metro8268 on March 8, 2004, at 20:47:40
I've been mostly "lurking" at this site to get a feel for the experiences of others in the treatment of their depression or BP. I have TR MDD with three episodes in the last ~5 years. I am very fortunate that I finally found a balance of medications that work for me, and have essentially been in remission for over 18 months (well 95% there, although the other 5% is probably just normal daily stress which I am overly aware of). Given that my likelihood for relapse is high, I do pay attention to what is said here.
I have closely read the horrendous stories of withdrawl from those using Effexor and SSRI's. I have been on both. SSRIs did help my mood but greatly exacerbated my cluster headaches, forcing me to stop them. I also was on Effexor for several months with a good response before a rise in my blood pressure forced me to stop it. In each case, I withdrew from the meds over a one or two week period. In no case did I expereince any withdrawl or discontinuation syndrome. That is NOT said to discount anyone's experience here. It's just that perhaps the issues of discontinuation syndromes are not as widespread as may be felt in reading these posts. It would be difficult to imagine such terrible symptoms occuring in as wide a population as those who use these commonly prescribed ADs without being apparent almost immediately in their test phases, or certainly within months of their release for general use. I do believe there are groups of people such as those here who, for reasons not really understood, experience severe effects upon discontinuation, while there are many who do not share that reaction.
I hope that everyone who does experience the pains that many of you have described will find a way through, and feel better. But please, don't deprive treatment from many others who could benefit, but are scared off by these stories. I do believe that open and fair dsclosure should be made by Pharma manufacturers, and individuals deserve the right to decide what risks they are willing to take to improve their health, but let's all remember that major depression is a killer disease, and those who suffer from it should not be deprived of help because of potential discontinuation problems, versus the definite disability and mortality that untreated MDD brings.
poster:DepNYer
thread:12459
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040308/msgs/322475.html