Posted by zinya on October 14, 2003, at 18:39:29
In reply to Re: Effexor is a Great Drug!Online Petition!, posted by LittleLeo on October 13, 2003, at 19:24:54
Greetings, all
I've been offline a while lately - Partly it was a good sign as i've been relatively more productive lately in my "regular life" ... but now since yesterday a setback with one of my 3-day left-temple intolerable headaches plus now an all-new nerve-lightning pain flare-up in my right forearm that limits my typing and may be a recurrence of carpal tunnel i had in 2000.
I'm still tapering down, at 37.5 mg since Sept 28 and planning tonight to move to half dose (opening capsule - or maybe i'll go to 25 mg - a 75 mg divided in 3rds - for a while first. As i've long realized here and advocated in return, i'm going REALLY slowly, more slowly than my impatient side might want but geared to "Better slow than sorry"... So far S-Es from withdrawal seem to be fairly minimal (these two problems today are unrelated - they happened pre-Effexor) .. Sweating is much less (which has allowed me to do the productive physical tasks until it does eventually kick in enough to make me drip so much i have to quit) and my heart beat has remained normal once again, no longer going crazy. But i also know from reading here that the worst withdrawal risks are in these last stages i'm just now entering...
What i write today to relay is something my chiropractor became aware of and just sent me and it leads to a potentially interesting looking website for other reasons as well as Effexor... Thus read on ... and i sign off for now with hugs,
zinyaSubject: YourLawyer.com Information: Effexor
Date: Tue, Oct 14, 2003, 2:10 AMThe following was sent to you from YourLawyer.com
(http://www.yourlawyer.com)
---------------------------------------------------Click below to view the page:
http://www.yourlawyer.com/practice/overview.htm?topic=Effexor---------------------------------------------------
There are several related pages re Effexor on this website -- including a form anyone can fill out about their experience for a lawyer's evaluation of their "case" -- but i'll paste here one of the key pages of the website:
Overview: Effexor
Wyeth warned doctors that tests showed its antidepressant Effexor caused an increased risk of suicidal behavior in children.In what is known as a "Dear Doctor" letter, Madison-based Wyeth is telling health professionals that clinical studies of the long-acting version, Effexor XR, found a higher incidence in children of "hostility and suicide-related adverse events, such as suicidal ideation and self-harm." No children in the tests committed suicide.
"You should be alert to signs of suicidal ideation in children and adolescent patients prescribed Effexor or Effexor XR (and) reassess the benefit-risk balance" for each patient, the Wyeth letter states.
The caution comes after U.S. and British regulators in June said no one under 18 should take GlaxoSmithKline's popular antidepressant Paxil because it could increase a child's risk of suicide attempts. Pediatric patients already taking Paxil were told to stop use gradually, under a doctor's supervision.
Wyeth's Aug. 22 letter, written by Dr. Victoria Kusiak, North American medical director for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, said that in a study of Effexor XR's use against major depression, 2 percent of the children reported thoughts about suicide, versus none in a comparison group getting a dummy pill.
Additionally, 2 percent displayed hostility, more than double the rate in those getting a placebo. In a study of patients under 18 with generalized anxiety disorder, 1 percent displayed abnormal or changed behavior; none did so in the comparison group.
The letter notes that the studies did not show Effexor relieves depression or anxiety in children.
Effexor was first approved in 1993; along with the once-a-day Effexor XR, it now generates $2.1 billion in annual sales for Wyeth, making it the company's biggest selling drug.
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poster:zinya
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031010/msgs/269435.html