Venlafaxine Short-term And Long-term Side Effects?

[NovemberStar]

No changes to sleep. I take it in the morning as recommended by my dr as it can affect sleep. From memory I used to take it at night initially as it made me too sleepy taking it in the morning. I did have an increase in anxiety initially as well - just felt a little jumpy an hour or so after taking it but that settled and my main issue then was depression rather than anxiety.

 

[equestrian4life]

I take 225mg of Venlafaxine everyday - I haven't really had much in the way of side effects. Having said that, what do notice is that if I accidentally miss a dose, I will get brain zaps like no tomorrow. The thing I DON'T like about this particular med (and please note this has just been my experience) is that it is a derivative of Cymbalta and I damn near committed suicide trying to come off that drug. I mention to my doc often that I am nervous about coming off it when the time comes. She assures me we will do it very slowly but I'm still nervous about it. But for now, I don't have too many complaints, I just can't forget to take it...the consequences are too much for me.

 

[joeylittle]

Just to demonstrate how differently people respond to the side effects...I'm on Venlafaxine 375mg/day. I would not hold it responsible for weight gain for me. But it absolutely messed with my sleep for about 2 weeks as I was titrating up. Now, it's really fine.

I also feel lucky in that I seem to be immune to the "brain zaps". I was previously on Cymbalta for 3 years and came off it without anything more than some headaches and mild, mild nausea. @equestrian4life , I'm sorry you have the zaps.

Echoing everyone else in the thread: get the Diabetes screen.