Posted by JohnL on April 21, 2001, at 5:46:45
In reply to how long for effexor relief, posted by wtm on April 20, 2001, at 21:48:49
> i am on day 20 of effexor the last 7 days 225mg still no relief tearfull,sad,not able to make decisions and panic has any one herd of effexor making things worse!! need help doc say ill be ok by jul 4th but i have never been this depressed and its scaring me this is my 4th major episode first time on medication i want to get this cured for good so maby i can be happy for once in my life
Yes, definitely Effexor or any med can make things worse. My views on this issue are controversial and somewhat anti-mainstream, so take them with a grain of salt or give them some thought. Your choice.
Total cure is an achievable goal. The secret is to find the drug that is a superior match for your unique chemistry. The only way to do that is trial and error. From what you have said in your post, Effexor does not qualify as a superior match for you.
A superior match meets these criteria:
1) Few side effects (your body embraces the drug molecule, doesn't view it as some hostile foreign substance)
2) Some hint of good response is noticed within one day to two weeks.Inferior matches take longer to work, if they ever work at all, have more side effects, and can actually make you feel worse. Can an inferior match go on to work well if given 8 weeks or longer? Yes it can. But why subject yourself to the torture, especially when there is no guarantee? To me, it is easier to abandon a dud drug at two weeks and start a new one than it is to continue with a dud for months.
There is ample evidence, anecdotally as well as scientifically, that a portion of patients will experience a robust response in a short time. Sometimes it is a fluke, sometimes it is just misinterpreted side effects, but in most cases it is indicative of a superior match. All of my doctors were quite different, but they all agreed on one thing. That is, those patients who responded well within a short time went on to be the most successful when given more time. Those who did not respond well in a short time went on to be either only partially cured, not cured at all, or worse.
So I look for relatively quick responses as a guiding tool to screen out losers and focus on winners. While a conventional pdoc would have you try one drug for 8 weeks, regardless that you are feeling worse the whole time, I would meanwhile be trying 4 drugs one at a time in that same period and dramatically increase the odds of stumbling onto the superior match I'm looking for.
Mainstream would say to stick it out and give it more time. But to me, Effexor has shown all the traits of an inferior match for you. Yes it can go on to work for you. But the odds for success at this point are lower than the odds would be if you tried something else instead.
poster:JohnL
thread:60638
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010417/msgs/60674.html