Posted by dancingstar on December 31, 2004, at 17:01:29
In reply to hello to all..., posted by chemist on December 27, 2004, at 10:31:04
Hi Chemist,
It's not that i completely disagree with you. In fact, I don't for the most part. I specifically asked the family practice doctor that gave me Effexor three years ago what the side effects were, and he told me that there were some sexual side effects but that they probably wouldn't apply to me. I suppose that he was right, I don't believe they did. I wasn't told of any other side effects and never thought to look for any. The warning on my drug label told me something about not driving if I was drowsy, but since I was prescribed E for fatigue, this made no sense to me...and I ignored it.
Though I stopped drinking all alcohol because I noticed that my tolerance for it had decreased, I never associated that with Effexor, nor my fatigue, low blood pressure, which was taken as a sign of my excellent health in spite of my extreme pain that could not be diagnosed. After a year, I had switched doctors, and monthly to semi-monthly I saw the doctor, even had my blood drawn to no avail. No one broached the concept of Effexor being the cause of all of my problems, though about three months before I stopped taking it on my own, my internist did ask, "How is that Effexor working for you?" in a routine kind of way. I believe that the reason for this is because the side effects data is under-reported by Wyeth and why I have encouraged anyone with side effects to report their problems to the FDA, not directly to Wyeth.
I do remember being weepy when I first saw my new internist two years ago and again another time and asked for an increase from 75mg to 150mg. It didn't help at all and, in fact, I became kind of depressed. Thought it was perimenopause. Besides, I couldn't lose weight. Didn't eat. I was hungry. Tired. In pain. I was getting old, couldn't think.
Finally decided to stop taking E as it couldn't hurt, I tried everything else to at least lose weight. Now, Chemist, let me digress here for a moment. I always do something that brings about a miracle in the month of September, every September. This September was no exception. Three days after I stopped taking it, I became, as you can imagine deathly ill. It was only then that I began to learn about E, only then that I began to do the research. Besides some residual pain in the nerves in my neck and back and colitis-like stomach stuff that seems to be getting better, I feel fantastic for the first time in years! Yep, it's a real, live miracle, the fact that I've figured this out with only the help of God 'cause I couldn't find anyone on earth that could solve my health problems, and now they are miniscule by comparison. All I've lost is three years of my life.
In the meantime, thousands of new prescriptions are being written for that drug, and new people are taking it every day without knowing anything whatsoever about it. I've spoken with some of them quite by accident in my daily journeys, and I know that they are not told anything at all about the problems with the drug. Wyeth's reps don't tell the doctors. The doctors don't tell the patients. I do feel, though, that the drug companies are fighting our ability to sue them in the same way the tobacco companies are even though we received no warnings and they have withheld data that we should have had prior to our ever having taken the drug. I would also like to know if our doctors have received incentives or gifts or money or other stuff in exchange for prescribing Effexor.
Maybe this is a good drug under some circumstances, but in my humble opinion it is being vastly oversold to the wrong people for the wrong reasons...and that is a crime to humanity in its own right.
Best wishes for a Happy New Year!
Bebe
poster:dancingstar
thread:434074
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041228/msgs/436101.html