Is this a good medication for you?
Hey this is dr abdul qadeer i’m a board certified psychiatrist i would like to talk about venlafexin today this video is for informational and educational purpose only mechanism of actions effexor xr is a serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor it is it was approved in us in 1993. it goes with different brand names in u.s it goes by effexor in canada it
Also goes by effects in india it brands name are van lor xr and ventab xl in pakistan it goes by effect zxr and fexine it is a generic medication now and most of the pharmacy sells the generic medication which is vanilla vaccine it is being used for different reasons some of those readings are fda approved indications and they are major depressive disorder
Generalized anxiety disorder social anxiety disorder and panic disorder but there are many other reasons that it has been used in the market and it is called off-label use we use for post-traumatic stress disorder we also use for bipolar depression we have to make sure that a mood stabilizer has to be on board a person should be using a mood stabilizer along
With an antidepressant if they have bipolar disorder effects also is used for obsessive compulsive disorder and premenstrual dysphoric disorder dosage form it comes in regular effects and effects at xr i don’t see a whole lot of regular effects these days most of the patients use effects at xr because effects are xr is extended release and it is used once a
Day effects xr comes in 37.5 75 and 150 milligram capsules regular effects comes in 25 milligram 37.5 milligram 50 milligram 75 milligram and 100 milligram tablet sometime i use regular effects these days when i know someone is very sensitive to medication and would need a lower dose like 12.5 for 25 milligram to start with so i use in that situation i start
Them on 25 milligram and then gradually increase the dose sometimes if i have to taper down the medication and even if they are at 37.5 i am trying to stop that and the person is having hard time and are having more withdrawal symptoms or sometime i use the tablet form at that time have them switched to 25 milligram of regular effects and then 37.5 milligrams and
Then 12.5 milligram after that and dosing dosing ranges from 37.5 to 25 milligram i have seen some people use up to 300 or 375 milligram also it’s used in rare form in form that patients are noticing some difference with medication but not the maximum effect so sometime i have used at a higher dose but also make sure that you don’t have any side effects because
Higher dose of effects can increase the blood pressure also pricing currently so it’s a generic medication so i was checking the walmart dollar for program and the cost of 30 capsule is 15 so still it’s a little expensive than four dollars but not as expensive as it used to be when it came in the market for the first time adverse reaction uh with and as with any
Medication you know there will be adverse side effects but uh usually if you start at a low dose it is being tolerated fairly well main side effects are nausea some people can have problems with sleep they have it can be a little bit activating for some people around 18 percent but there are some people who have who will say that initially they are feeling tired
Uh dry mouth can also be there for up to 15 population some people can have sweatiness especially at nighttime some people have low appetite some people complain about constipation some people with diarrhea but most of those side effects goes away sexual side effects sometimes goes away sometimes it stays around nine to ten percent people can have sexual side
Effects usually with most of the anti-depressant people can have side sexual side effects the best way is to cut down the dose or wait for the medications side effects to goes away or sometimes even add another medication on top of effects or to make sure this sexual side effect goes away side effects also include serotonin syndrome which is very rare i have
Rarely seen those serotonin syndrome but if you start noticing confusion agitation and you are seeing things and your blood pressure is too high you are having increased temperature and you are having a hard time walking and you have severe nausea or diarrhea so it’s better to go to the er right away or call your doctor because you might have serotonin syndrome
But it’s very rare usually i see in people who have two or three antidepressants on board and then it can cause that before you stop effects or talk to your doctor because effector is one of the few antidepressant that’s are very difficult to taper down paxil is one of them effects or xr is one of them because if you suddenly stop the medication or even if you
Miss one or two doses you can have discontinuation syndrome people start feeling dizzy they will complain about flu like symptoms and even electric shock sensations kind of feeling and people can feel more depressed more anxious sometimes they feel that it might be because they’re not taking the medication but if they are skipping one dose most of the time i have
Seen that if they they have mostly discontinuation syndrome if you have to switch an antidepressant if so you have to gradually taper down effector and add another antidepressant sometime people uh cross titrate like tapering down effects and then in adding another medication if you have to completely stop effects and you don’t want to be on any antidepressant
It still is better to gradually taper down before i would say between four to eight weeks and even if you still having problems with tapering down then switching the effects at xr2 regular effects are up to those of 25 milligram and then 12.5 milligram for two weeks and then stop it but if still you are having problems with withdrawal symptoms then you can add
The medication like prozac which have a long half life it stays in the body for few weeks so it’s better to add prozac for a few weeks two to three weeks and then gradually taper down and stop effects and later on you can just stop prozac if you are taking 10 to 20 milligram because you don’t necessarily have to taper down prozac because it does have a long half
Life so if you’re on 10 to 20 milligram you can just stop protects and that way you are tapering down stopping effects that have a low dose of prozac in your system and then you can stop the effects and then later on stop the project final thoughts so i think it’s an excellent medication i usually recommend people trying to ssris like prozac paxil zoloft lexapro
Those medication first and if they don’t have good success with those ssris like trying two to three antidepressant in that class if they are not helpful those medications are not working then i switch them to effect correct so as with any antidepressant make sure you don’t have any side effects or any significant side effect like increased nausea vomiting if
You have it then you need to start at a low dose with any antidepressant if you start having suicidal thoughts you know please talk to your doctor if you have symptoms of mania like starting antidepressant and you are not sleeping you are talking fast you are doing impulsive things you are going on a shopping spree to so talk to your doctor because sometimes
Antidepressants switch people who have undiagnosed bipolar and they are being diagnosed with unipolar or major depressive disorder and then they find out that after being on anti-depressant they switch to a hypomania or meaning so talk to your doctor about it please let us know if you like us to create any video on any specific topic and also let us know what
You think in the comments below thank you very much for watching
Transcribed from video
Venlafaxine Medication By Dr.Q
