Posted by John on June 3, 1999, at 11:23:47
In reply to Re: Effexor, posted by Lisa Yocum on June 2, 1999, at 12:55:45
I've had this problem as well, but once you start taking effexor again, the discontinuation symptoms disappear rapidly.
I had similar problems with withdrawal on paxil (after it lost efficacy), but my shrink added a small dose (10mg) of prozac for a couple of weeks and the withdrawal went away. Also, I continued decreasing the doses slowly with paxil over the period of a month. My doc said the withdrawal has to do with the shorter half-lives of these drugs (esp. effexor) causing a rapid drop in serotonin levels and hence the nasty discontinuation symptoms. Since prozac has an epic half-life (72 hours?), it maintains the serotonin level long enough to prevent the symptoms. I don't react well to prozac (makes me feel anxious), but the dose was low enough to not increase anxiety much and still keep discontinuation at bay--honestly, a slow burn, low-level anxiety is MUCH better than discontinuation syndrome.
poster:John
thread:6937
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990601/msgs/7013.html