Hi

Could have equally used the title "Moving up from 75 to 150mg".

Gist is that been on this for 7 weeks and feeling truly awful: Mental debility, tiredness, anxiety, pulse racing, shaking, muscular tension and weakness etc etc. Went to Doc today and explained that going on vacation in 5 weeks and wanted to know wot to do I.E If I was going tomorrow I wouldnt be able to go etc.

In circumstances he suggested increasing to 150mg as he has many patients doing very well on 225.

My fear is that I tried increasing the recommended Citalopram dose before coming off that and it made me really ill. It just seems that my system is so oversensitised to ADS (probably tried all of em) and crucifies me when I increase/change etc.

Have many of you made this step?

Was it successful?

Was there an initial problem.

Many thanks

L

When I began on Effexor a few months ago, I too had SE that you mentioned. It was gradually increased and after about three to four weeks of increased dosage, things stabilized very nicely. I was unable to sleep but countered that with Remeron and Ambien and I hit a very nice plateau. Unfortunately money has been an obsticale for me, and I have been unable to get my prescription for awhile now. DO NOT try to come off of effexor cold turkey!!! The withdrawals are horrible. I have a wonderful friend that has given me the funds to purchase my meds and it is taking awhile to get back up to my wonderful plateau. I am on 300mg of Effexor and 60mg of Remeron. Apparently rather high doses, but my problems are very deep and I need these to ward off the suicide ideations. I say give the meds a chance, they worked wonders for me...
I wish you the best...

I had a problem with going from 75 mg to 150 mg. I could not get over the side effects and had to return to the 75 dose. One year later, after going to a psychiatrist, I was told that some people have to move from 75 to 112.5 then to 150 because 75 to 150 is just too much of a jump. So that was the route I took and it work.

On a separate note, I never increased the dosage until side effects had resolved from the dose I had been prescribed. I am concerned about what you are currently experiencing. If these have been caused by Effexor I would question staying on the drug at all. If these are ongoing issues that you have been trying to solve, please give more detail as to what has changed, gotten worse, gotten better. Also, did you start Effexor on 75 mg or 37.5? If you started on 37.5, how long were you on that dose?

Hi

Started on 75 and have been on this for about 7 weeks. I'm no sure if the crippling symtoms are all down to Effexor as I got these with Citalopram, Sertraline, Prozac etc. I'm just not sure whether its the underlying depression/anxiety or the meds anymore. I have also been told that the physical symptoms are part of a "sommatisation disorder" which can produce seemingly real awful physical symptoms.

Frankly I don't know what the hell I'm going to do but thanks anyway

L

Hey there, sorry to hear that your not feeling well, I had a tough time when I started Effexor I felt pritty awful for about 8weeks, it did all get better tho, I would feel bad again for about 2 weeks after increasing dose, I currently take 375mg the main side effects I have now are shakey hands and find it hard to sleep. I hope it gets better for you soon!

Thanks again

Shaking is also something I've suffered from for ages. With me its not just hands but the head as well. It's almost like a constant tick which probably few people can see but its also painful if that makes sense.

L

In order for me to tolerate doses greater than 75 mg Effexor, my pdoc had to put me on Klonopin because I too had shakes/tremors. It seems Effexor increased my anxiety.

Your nervous system has to get used to increased levels of serotonin and that can be a difficult adjustment for some of us. At 75 mg Effexor is only increasing your Serotonin level. Although classified as an SNRI, Effexor does not affect norepenephrine level until you reach much higher doses like 225 or 300 mg. All the other meds you list also affect Serotonin. Increased levels of serotonin are supposed to help turn down the volume of physical pain messages to the brain. It seems odd that you have had increased physical symptoms. I am assuming here that you are referring to pain and not something else.

I hope you are under the care of a psychiatrist as your situation sounds too complex to be managed by a general practitioner.

Please post updates. I do hope that you improve so that you can go on vacation and actually enjoy it.