Posted by apenname on May 2, 2006, at 19:48:03
In reply to Re: Help!! High BP, effexor withdrawal? VERY SCARED, posted by gingerlyn67 on May 1, 2006, at 8:42:09
Hi. Here's my story and my advice for when you're ready to deal with the numbers again. I've avoided measuring my blood pressure a bunch of times just to not deal with the anxiety the numbers gave me.
I was on Effexor XR (225mg) for some years. My BP was normal (on average) when I started, and on a dose that was effective for my depression (and anxiety), went higher. My psychiatrist was concerned more about the long term trend. This was back when I was 29, and my blood pressure one day was 158/101 in the morning (I was very very stressed and anxious), and dropped to 128/80-something in the evening once I was relaxed again. My doctor at the time was only worried if my blood pressure stayed that high for a day or two.
Be careful with stressing about one single data point. Make sure you are taking your blood pressure correctly, if you're using your own blood pressure monitor device, bring it to your doctor's and check against theirs. My last psychiatrist had me only take my blood pressure first thing in the morning just when I woke up to get a baseline measurement.
I don't remember if I took my blood pressure during Effexor XR withdrawal, or even checked the prescribing information for withdrawal symptoms related to blood pressure, so I don't know if that's normal. I did find that the wrist blood pressure device I had gave a consistently higher measurement than the arm one.
It's going to be ok. Get more measurements, and try and calm down. Take the blood pressure measurements seriously, and check with your doctor (who knows if you have anything else going on that this could be a symptom of), but don't let it scare you and make things worse. Some people found it eased withdrawal symptoms to reduce Effexor doses slower. I've been through this, and it is stressful.
Good luck and I agree with gingerlyn, vent where you can.
poster:apenname
thread:638056
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20060412/msgs/639401.html