Posted by omegon on October 14, 2003, at 18:57:25
In reply to Anyone out there just start Effexor XR?, posted by lg929 on October 10, 2003, at 14:03:05
Yup, I've just switched from Paxil (20mg, was on it for 7 weeks) to Efexor XR (75mg) as well.
The first week I was a bit drowsy but quite cheerful. A few temporary weird effects which I attribute to going off Paxil, but now (after 11 days) I'm feeling someone more functional (though still more depressed than I'd like): many of the side effects I had on Paxil are gone (vertigo & generally wobbly world, morning sedation, afternoon near hypomania and mood swings and desire to drink huge amounts of alcohol to calm down, near total anorgasmia, numb mind feeling, metallic taste, messed up vision, destroyed digestive system, etc etc etc! fun stuff. All from 20mg and not improving after nearly two months). Efexor mainly just makes me sweat furiously for a couple of hours in the morning; ick - but even that's not as bad as on Paxil. Oh, and I get to have the most vivid and bizarre dreams I've ever had, which is fun. Shame I always wake up sweating.
The main problem I'm having is it that, since I take it as a single 75mg dose in the morning, it feels like it's substantially worn off by the time I wake up the _next_ morning (shaky, nervous, depressed - 5 hour half-life grrrrr), and then my mood g-r-a-d-u-a-l-l-y improves until by 6pm I'm feeling great. (Nine hours in... nine hours to "peak serum levels" for XR, apparently. Figures.) Paxil did this a bit but not so bad - longer half-life.
I'm going to ask my doctor this week if I can take raise the dose and take the extra 75mg in the evening to try and smooth it out. I think the problems with both drugs are partly due to the continuously changing levels of the drug in my system - the SSRI rollercoaster. (or should that be SSRI seesaw? depression down, sedation - up! side effects down, anxiety - up!) "Steady state" is anything but. The peak level might stop changing, sure, but you gotta climb the hill and fall back down every day.
Maybe I can just get the stuff added to my drinking water 8-)
poster:omegon
thread:267876
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031010/msgs/269443.html