Posted by 49er on June 25, 2008, at 20:06:15
In reply to Re: Long term effects of Effexor/permanent, posted by Jenna611 on June 22, 2008, at 14:36:16
Jenna,
My blood boils big time when I hear advice like what you were given.
Telling you to take meds every other day is putting you into withdrawal big time, since Effexor has one of the shortest half lives.
A safe taper means to take 10% of the current dose every 3 to 6 weeks. With Effexor, it is going to be more like every 6 weeks.
To have more options, you need to switch to regular Effexor and you can reduce using these options.
1. Buy a digital scale on Ebay and weigh your dose. You can take beads out of Effexor, right?
2. Ask your psychiatrist to write a prescription for a compound pharmacy who can make the med in the dose you need. Insurance issues might be a problem so that is why I prefer the first option.
I think substituting Prozac for Effexor is very iffy. Many people have tried to do that with Paxil and found it didn't work.
A slow taper is the key. It just frustrates me greatly that many psychiatrist don't seem to understand this even though I am sure their intentions are good.
49er
poster:49er
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080617/msgs/836439.html