Posted by zinya on January 3, 2004, at 22:26:05
In reply to effexor changes in brain funxn. Help?, posted by mMarie on December 26, 2003, at 14:45:24
hi Marie!
i've just given a long-winded re-intro of myself above... and where i prefaced how i was going to write you here with a question about this statement of yours:
>Hot flashes are directly linked to norepinephrine. Blocking NoreP will prevent the hot flash. Effexor has been successful in treating menopausal women b/c it is a >NoreP Reuptake Inhibitor. Like Serotonin, more NoreP floats around in the brain as it has been blocked from re-uptake. Atleast this is how I understand it.
My own entry into Effexor led me to try to understand the Norep. component most of all since it was <i>the</i> reason my md chose Effexor and the lure was that it would be an energy aide since my biggest single problem was ZERO energy. But this particular account confuses me, unless (and probably) it's just yet another sign of how much this same drug can have reverse effects on separate individuals.
For me, sweating occurred and remained (as i just described in some detail on previous post) while ON Effexor, and tapered off since quitting. So it's hard to see that as fitting with the above description of effects.
But, even without my own alternate experience, it's not clear to me (but this could all be the still flu-addled brain i'm trying to emerge from today) how the theory you described works. If BLOCKING Norep prevents hot flashes (and sweating, presumably), then that means Norep promotes it. So taking a "reuptake inhibitor" for Norep should mean (shouldn't it?) that more of it "floats around in the brain," wouldn't that precisely coincide with my experience of Norep promoting sweating ... And so WHY would it be prescribed for menopause???
Unless, again, it perversely has opposite effects for different individuals or different situations where maybe menopause is itself some unique biochemical circumstance which reverses cause-effect relations???
Well, i feel like i'm just babbling here, and understanding the theory of this probably interests only a few, but if anyone has any light to shed on this, i'd appreciate it.
>Question: Could the Effexor after 3 months of only 37.5mg have permanently altered my brain function? Could I be producing more NoreP--Could I be out of balance? >How long does it take the chemical substances in the brain to return to the state they were in PRE-Effexor OR CAN EFFEXOR CAUSE PERMANENT CHANGES?My own response to your query here, Marie, would be similar to what i just wrote in the post above (to moms_cheeks, i think it was - or Zellie, who both seemed to have similar experiences to date, if i recall right) ... Namely, yes and no :)) -- it might or it might not. That would be my best guess. :)
Sorry to suggest such an unhelpful response but i don't think anyone who's being honest (which most doctors alas, are not, and the drug co's certainly are not) they really don't know what the risks for a given individual are nor the potentials cuz we're in an area of brain chemistry here that is so profound and basic to the whole body functioning, so intersected with everything, that it's unknowable.
I'm essentially "off" Effexor again and i don't THINK i've had any 'permanent' personality or other changes from my six months total on it ... What i still deal with is zero -- or rare intermittent -- energy, which there was no sign the Effexor was really changing, but on balance i THINK it's right for me to be off of it, though god i wished it could have done for me what it seems to have for mom's cheeks and Zellie (if i'm remembering the right names, both of you being new to me, i think)...
well, that's it for now -- also stll dealing with carpal tunnel which seems to be an SE from Effexor as well and/or from Effexor withdrawal perhaps - it started back in October while i was on the downcycle at around 75 mg. It IS known to be associated in at least some studies with menopause suggesting it is estrogen-related, and the only previous time i had carpal tunnel i too had had an upheaval in my estrogen levels. I'm deducing from this reoccurrence that Effexor impacts our hormones' functioning too (how couldn't it?) and so the return of carpal tunnel after 3 yrs must not be a coincidence....
I've been quite vulnerable immune-system-wise lately, it seems - this latest flu hitting me hard being the latest example but it's been a whole year like that it seems... But who knows what's cause and what's effect?
good questing and living to you all,
zinya
poster:zinya
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031231/msgs/296175.html