Posted by Racer on August 12, 2004, at 12:41:15
In reply to PLANNING my withdrawl from Effexor XR, posted by Johnny Doe on August 12, 2004, at 1:16:59
My guess is that it will be easier to come off the 75mg than the 225 mg. Also, there's a good chance that, if you find you do need an antidepressant again in future, Effexor XR will work for you again. (One theory about the whole AD poop-out thing is that rotating through several meds that have worked will keep you going long term. Say, Prozac works for three years, switch to Paxil (or whatever) until it poops out in [x] years, then maybe Effexor until it poops out when you go back to Prozac and do it all over again. I know that some people say that you can never take the same med again, but I haven't found that to be true. If a med works for me once, it tends to work for me again.)
Anyway, about the down-taper from 75mg. I'd try 37.5mg for a couple of weeks, then maybe experiment with whether taking it every other day for a bit before stopping entirely helps more. Since you're already down to 75mg, there's only the one lower dose for you to taper through. The only real advice I can give you on this is pretty simple: if you go down too soon and find yourself suffering, go back up for a few more days and try again. (That is what I did, by the way.) You might also ask your doctor for a dose or two of Prozac, which helps ease the discontinuation from Effexor. The longer half life of Prozac means that you only have to take about 10mg to get the benefits, and only once or maybe twice.
Best luck, and best wishes for school.
poster:Racer
thread:376712
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040811/msgs/376869.html