Posted by Racer on May 11, 2008, at 10:28:59
In reply to Re: Prozac burn-out, posted by pajoco on May 11, 2008, at 9:37:09
Yes, Effexor is known for a wicked discontinuation syndrome. The good news is that you shouldn't have much problem if you take it for the two to three months it would take to titrate up to a therapeutic dose and see how it works. My husband tried it and had no trouble coming off when it didn't work out for him.
The other good news is that Cymbalta is related and has a much milder withdrawal for most people. (It took me eight months to get off Effexor after a couple of years -- although I could probably have done it more quickly, looking back -- and only a couple of weeks on the Cymbalta. And there were no problems at all with stopping the Cymbalta -- it only took the weeks because I didn't want to risk any problems.
They're both good medications. My pdoc suggested trying Effexor again recently, because he considers it reliably effective for most of his patients. (And I happen to think he's a genius -- and I'm very hard to please.)
I wish you very good luck. I do think it's worth trying another medication. If neither Effexor nor Cymbalta are options, it's also worth trying Zoloft -- sometimes switching to another drug in the same class will be effective when one poops out on you.
poster:Racer
thread:828342
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080510/msgs/828441.html