Does effexor help reverse amnesia?

[+littlebird]

This is my first post, but I've been reading the forum for a while. I've learned so much from all the posts and articles. Thank you!

I've just been diagnosed with PTSD. When I was a teenager (1985) I was kidnapped for two months. I came home with amnesia, had increasing nightmares, etc. and then my memories began to surface. I was never diagnosed back then, but I was having definite flashbacks and other PTSD symptoms. Once I had a basic understanding of what had happened, everything seemed to settle down. I seldom had any serious problems.

Then something happened that triggered new memories and flashbacks. At first it was just once in a while, but a few months ago things got much worse. I was having frequent intense flashbacks, shutting down until I couldn't move or speak, and more.

Recently I saw a psychiatrist who said she treats PTSD. She basically said this layer of memories is too fragmented for me to remember without the help of medication. She wanted me to start taking Effexor and work up to the dose where it turns from a SSRI into a SNRI.

Before I reached the intended dose I began getting flooded with memories and flashbacks, sometimes hours a day. I'm hardly sleeping and having a really hard time. Remembering is hell, but I want to remember. I deserve to know the truth, and I'll do anything it takes to uncover it.

Here is my main question. Does Effexor help people with amnesia recover their memories? I've looked all over the forum and the internet and can't find any information on this. It sounds like Effexor is used to treat the depression or anxiety that can come along with PTSD, but I'm not depressed. I'm not anxious unless I'm in the middle of a flashback.

My psychiatrist is really nice, but not too good at giving information. She's leaving it up to me to decide whether to increase the dose. I don't know if the Effexor is just working early or if my memories are coming back on their own. If it will actually help me remember, I'm fine with it. Otherwise I don't want to take serious medicine I don't need.

Did any of you have an experience with Effexor helping your memories return or do you know of any information or research that could help me decide what to do? Thanks so much.

 

[Friday]

No experience with Effexor.

Nor any other SSRI/SSNRI. Although I have taken Strattera (NRI)

That said? Almost any/every mood & mind altering substance I've ever taken -but especially ones that lower anxiety & inhibitions while increasing good feelings- has let me think about things that are otherwise unthinkable. It's the chemical distance, I think, mostly. Knocks the sharp edges off of things that are too painful to touch, otherwise. A few even allow me to talk about things I never talk about, full stop. Even if I want to talk about it and can't. The single most effective at doing that are probably the MDMA derivatives, but they all (every psychoactive drug I've ever taken, including alcohol) do it to some extent. The shape it takes with each is different, as are the side effects, but the ability to think about things I avoid thinking about is there with each of them.

 

[joeylittle]

She basically said this layer of memories is too fragmented for me to remember without the help of medication.

She what?

I can understand this as: PTSD symptoms can interfere with our ability to pursue trauma work. We may be too depressed to focus well enough, too anxious or emotional to talk about the things that happened. Medication (along with cognitive work) can help you manage those symptoms, which then allows you to work with your own mind/memory more effectively, including your recall skills.

But the suggestion that there is a medication - an antidepressant - that will literally make memories less fragmented, more clear? No. Not proven, at any rate.

Is it possible she was just using a little shorthand to describe the usefulness of meds as part of a symptom management strategy?

She wanted me to start taking Effexor and work up to the dose where it turns from a SSRI into a SNRI.

I gotta say, 'she what? again. This is technically true - Effexor is only seratonergic (the S in SSRI) at low levels, and starts working with norepinephrine (the N in SNRI) at mid range doses, getting into dopaminergic (dopamine) interaction at max doses. BUT: that's just how it works. One doesn't take Effexor in order to use it as an SSRI, to help with mental health issues.

The way you are saying she talked about upping the dose makes me think that this is more of a hypothesis or theory of hers (or something in a journal), more than it is hard science.

Before I reached the intended dose I began getting flooded with memories and flashbacks, sometimes hours a day. I'm hardly sleeping and having a really hard time.

Its important to look at everything else separate from the med. What work were you doing in therapy during this time? What are the other factors that could have provoked this flooding?

The flooding is serious, and something you want to deal with. But it's also an extremely common reaction to initiating, or resuming, doing any work on the trauma/PTSD. I'm not saying it definitively doesn't have a relationship to the Effexor - but, the Effexor should not be the only thing you consider.

Did any of you have an experience with Effexor helping your memories return or do you know of any information or research that could help me decide what to do? Thanks so much.

Definitely no, for me. I'm on high-dose Effexor (as well as some other things) and what I can say about it is, it's a very strong drug, and the mechanism is what my psychiatrist described as 'sloppy'. It's the oldest SNRI, and therefore has broad impact. It's also considered among many (doctors) to be the hardest one of its class to discontinue taking. This is why it's more often than not a second-choice drug, for treatment of depression.

There isn't a drug that is specific to PTSD. There are a few that are regularly used off-label for PTSD, or certain PTSD symptom sets. One SSRI managed to get actual FDA approval as a PTSD drug...I don't know why I can't remember which one. But their data barely proved their point. It is a constant demonstration of marketing driving research; if scientists can get an existing drug to be FDA-approved for treating an additional disorder, the drug can (in the US) be re-patented for that usage, and therefore make more money (sometimes under a new name, sometimes the same).

Long way of saying: if depression is not a co-morbid diagnosis or your predominant PTSD symptom...Effexor may not be the right drug for you at all, and while there's no hard science to explain it as a memory enhancer, there is hard science around both:

• How difficult discontinuation is
• How it will have dangerously negative side-effects (esp. suicidality) in individuals who do not need what the drug is giving them.

All that being said - I'm going to go check a bunch of journals (new research project, I've been needing one) and look for this memory stuff. It'd be interesting to find info on it, and I could be not fully informed. I generally know the drugs I take/have taken very, very well. But I'm not a doc :)

I was a kidnap victim, and had delayed onset PTSD once I started talking about it. Shortly after I started talking about it, I got intrusive memories that I often could not manage at all. And that still happens, around portions of the narrative that haven't been worked on in trauma processing. So, I can sort of identify, there. I wonder sometimes about the differences between having a contained (? clear beginning, middle, end) trauma event, like abduction, vs a recurring trauma, like abuse, or a single-incident trauma (like accident, rape, etc). Are there commonalities in how symptoms and recovery progress/proceed, stuff like that.

(Sorry, tangent).

 

[Deleted member 43454]

Personally I felt like the pharma drugs increased memory issues and coming off effexor was SERIOUS withdrawl symptoms for me where my equilibrium was off I had to just sleep most days until it wore off.

 

[Fadeaway]

I stopped the effexor because it was causing amnesia. No one knows, not even a dr. how it will effect you.

 

[+littlebird]

Thank you everyone!
I'm sorry it's taken me a while to respond. We had our sewer pipe running from the house to the street replaced a few days ago. Now there's a muddy sink hole in the front yard and a backup/flood in the basement. I think the new pipe has a problem!

joeylittle, thank you for offering to do research for me! I really appreciate it.

I'm not actually getting any therapy, besides regular meetings with my wonderful pastor. I was meeting with him for something else when all this got triggered. At first it was just a new memory here and there, and he'd help and support me while I dealt with it. But when things really started exploding and I was completely shutting down (not being able to move or speak) he begged me to go see someone "with credentials".

I've met with the psychiatrist twice. She diagnosed me with PTSD, but other than the Effexor she has not given me any practical help with the flashbacks or the shutting down. She has said nothing about EMDR or the other therapies that re-process the trapped memories I've read about on the forum here. She didn't mention any grounding techniques or anything else that would help me either. I found a discussion of them on the forum, and I've been trying a few to see if they help me. She thinks talking to my pastor once in a while is all I need, therapy wise.

I did know about the nasty withdrawal from Effexor and that's why I didn't want to go on it. She seemed certain I wouldn't be able to get large enough pieces of memories to come back if I didn't take it. I am not dealing with any depression or constant anxiety. It's the flashbacks themselves that cause fear and horrible emotions. I'm really beginning to doubt what I was told, and I'm definitely not raising the dose again until I know more.

Thank you again everyone. I need to go clean up more of the flood in the basement. It's a pretty good distraction from flashbacks and memories, actually!

 

[joeylittle]

She seemed certain I wouldn't be able to get large enough pieces of memories to come back if I didn't take it. I am not dealing with any depression or constant anxiety. It's the flashbacks themselves that cause fear and horrible emotions. I'm really beginning to doubt what I was told, and I'm definitely not raising the dose again until I know more.

Find a different psychiatrist. This really isn't right.

Your memories will continue to come in, with no problems. I suspect you're experiencing what happens to alot of people...you start opening up the box from the past, and then, it just starts coming out on its own. Getting into therapy with someone experienced in trauma therapy would be a much more helpful thing for you right now. They will start with grounding and symptom management, and getting those skills will help tremendously. If you feel like you'd benefit from a sort of cognitive-training boot camp, look into hospital programs in your area. Called PHP and IOPs, they can be a great way to get started with this stuff.

 

[EveHarrington]

Here's the thing.

If you go to a psychiatrist, they are going to prescribe drugs 99.9% of the time (if you present with symptoms of some sort). Why? That's just what they do. The vast majority do not do therapy. They do not teach you anything in the way of coping skills or grounding skills or anything that will give you lasting healing. They went to medical school and medical school does not teach one how to be a therapist. Medical school churns out doctors who can prescribe drugs. It's just what they do.

What you need is a trauma therapist. These people go to school and get a PhD in psychology or go to social work school or get some other kind of degree in counseling. They have lots of training in counseling and don't prescribe drugs (unless they've also been to medical school to be a doctor or nursing school to be a high powered drug prescribing nurse.)

It can be confusing, but rest assured you do indeed need a trauma therapist IMHO. Your doc will only see you every few months or so once you're med stable. A therapist will see you every week, every other week, or even two times a week if you need it. Your pastor is good for spiritual guidance but given the fact that he's urged you to see someone with credentials, I can confidently say this stuff is way beyond his expertise.

If you're not anxious or depressed there is no reason for you to be on Effexor. Why boost seratonin and/or norepinephrine levels when yours aren't out of whack? This is a recipe for disaster. I recommend finding a new doctor.

 

[Deleted member 43454]

Yes I agree with what's said above 100 percent.