Posted by Sean9 on April 1, 2003, at 12:15:58
In reply to Re: Effexor Withdrawal Highly Overrated » Sean9, posted by Jack Smith on April 1, 2003, at 11:47:40
Good humor Jack.
I'm making the link to the FDA's consumer complaint form a part of my signature from now on.
If you'd like to know why, here's the answer: Because I called the FDA and spoke with someone there. He said that although it is possible that a large number of people are experiencing severe discontinuation effects on Effexor, he personally had only received 2 complaints about this drug. Two. Based on the postings on this site alone, it appears there are more than 2 people who describe their witdrawal experienc from Effexor to be a "nightmare", or "horrible", or bad enough that some people are "afraid" to quit now. He told me that the FDA does not go out and look for problems with drugs, they do not search through news groups or visit online petitions. The point is, the FDA can't act unless consumers inform them of their experiences. And that's why I post the link, because I'm convinced that more than 2 people in world would like to voice their concerns in an effort to help warn new users of Effexor. And I'll admit, this is just my opinion, but I've read a LOT of other postings with similar sentiment (i.e. I never new how bad this withdrawal could be, The withdrawal is worse than the cure, What can I take to make the electric shocks go away, How can I quit if I can't make it through the withdrawal). You get my point. One more thing, I consider myself to be a pretty good consumer, so I've visited the Effexor web site and read through their Q&A on discontinuation sypmtoms, clinical trial results, etc. And yet after reading all of that, I'm shocked there's no data on the percent of people that experience discontinuation symptoms after they decided to quit, the types of symptoms, to what degree, and for how long (if you read carefully, they only address the discontiuation rates). Why? Our PCP that prescribed Effexor didn't mention withdrawal symptoms that differ with any other non-addicitve drug, and offered no sympathy or counter-treatment when the withdrawal effects became intolerable. Why? I read postings from people that complain of the discontinuation effects, and people that quit with no problems whatsoever, and I have to wonder statistically how many people are going through the kinds of discontinuation symptoms and for how long. I have to wonder, because that wasn't published in the Effexor clinical trials. Why? I could go on, but my short answer to the "Why?" question is, it's not for me to answer. That's what the FDA does. Thanks for your comment.
The FDA Med Watch Report, online complaint form:
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch/
poster:Sean9
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030329/msgs/215089.html