Posted by ShelliR on February 10, 2003, at 11:59:45
In reply to Re: another question on gepirone » ShelliR, posted by noa on February 9, 2003, at 22:17:48
> I don't know anything about the effects of cutting off oxycontin cold turkey, but fwiw:
>
> When I was at higher doses of effexor (which has been the most effective AD for me), I had similar black out experiences. Or shall I say that most of them were gray outs except the one time I fainted. That is why I no longer take such a high dose.
>
> When I started, I started much much more slowly than what they had you start at.Hi Noa,
They started me so quickly because I was so suicidal. If the doctor had even glanced at the PDR, he would have realized that effexor often causes hypostatic reactions. I read about it in the nurse's manual--that's all they had up there and it said to warn patients about this possibility. I have seen the ugliest side of psychiatrists this last year; they hate when you figure out something that they should have known. I've "greyed" out before, but this was the only time I've ever actually blacked out, over and over for very short times.
btw, Scott, it was a small unit in a Washington, D.C. hospital, not Johns Hopkins. It looked like a geriatric unit; mean age was about 80 because the director is a geriatric specialist. I think Hopkins is the only hospital I would try in my area and I probably wouldn't even try that, I am so down on hospitals and hospital pdocs.
I think there's a possiblity that effexor might have worked if I could have given it the time; but my pdoc (then) insisted that I give up opiates first. I can't afford to go through side effects because I can't afford not to work, or to work and keep disappointing people like I did last year. It's taken me too long to build up my business; plus both my pdoc and pain doc say that opiates will not prevent ADs from working.
At some point I may rethink effexor and try again, but I'm pretty much as scared of effexor as I am of opiates. My present doctor doesn't think he could get me high enough on effexor (because of my blackouts) for a therapuetic dose.
Shelli
poster:ShelliR
thread:139984
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030208/msgs/140432.html