Posted by Cam W. on June 2, 2001, at 11:28:18
In reply to Effexor Cataract Cam, Elizabeth, posted by paulk on June 2, 2001, at 5:03:48
Paul - I really did a thourough search for cataracts from Effexor™ (venlafaxine) and the only place that I found any mention was in the PDR under very rare side effects.. Not even PubMed or mentalhealth.com. Even the Canadian PDR, the CPS made no mention of it. I had definitely not heard it before. The CPS usually goes overboard in the reporting of side effects. I have been expecting to see hangnails show up as a side effect in some new drug.
I have had trouble with accomodation (focusing) with each dose increase, but this is lasted only a day or three.
I did find something interesting with regards to St.Johns Wort, though. Seems someone has connected cataracts to SJW and sun worshippers. See:
http://web.nami.org/camden/vol7is2/page4.html
There has been some debate on Seroquel™ (quetiapine) causing cataracts at high doses, but this has never been seen in humans, only dogs. I wonder if the cataracts showed up in preclinical trials with animals. Perhaps the researchers had a wonky batch of animals. Genetic inbreeding of critters used in research was a problem 20 years ago. As an aside, it was a bad batch of rodents in early LSD experiments that led researchers to conclude that LSD caused teratogenic mutations in offspring. Ya want to scare people, go for the gonads.
The PDF side effect profile lists everything that happened in animals and people during trials of the drug. Many of the very rare side effects are never seen again and a causal relationship of the side effect to the drug is seldom proven when it occurs in one or two people (or animals) out of the thousands tested. The company lists every side effect that occurs so that the FDA cannot come back at them and say they were hiding information, and also to cover their ass in the event of a lawsuit.
I will hazard a guess that cataracts showed up in one person or batch of animals and is totally unrelated to the Effexor. I have been wrong before, but we would have heard more on this by now. Rival drug companies would eat this up.
Hope that this is of some help. - Cam
poster:Cam W.
thread:65142
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010530/msgs/65162.html