Hello,
I'm sorry to hear about your horrific condition. I have gone through two months of pure hell, just because Effexor didn't disclose this important information.
I have just started a class action law suit, and would appreciate it if you do the same; so that the attorney that I have contacted see that many people were affected and that it a threat:
Those two months of agony and life threatening symtopms have caused me many academic and professional opportunities, just because nobody was notified of the horrific discontinuation effects. I don't want anybody to ever experience what we went through. So, please add your experience on the link above. We can save somebody from the same repercussions, and perhaps get some sort of settlement for all the medical expenses and damages we had to go through.
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I spent 10,000 USD on figuring out what was wrong with my body last year which had appeared to have practically shut down with extreme fatigue, severe constipation, the highest cortisol levels my internist had ever seen which now appear, and muscle tremors to be caused by Effexor (started at 37.5 mg in November 2013 and went up to 225 mg in April 2014 and stopped cold turkey 5 days ago and will not go back). Although I seem to be handling the withdraw symptoms better than some, I can't even go outside because of the dizziness, brain zaps, let alone have a lucid conversation with someone outside of my household. Effexor cost me and my family much financial strain over the past year and my physical "functions"have turned to almost normal since I quit taking the drug last Saturday, December 20th. Please let me know how I can join a class action law suit or how I can join with you and your attorney. Many thanks.
I am on this site wondering the same thing. I have managed to withdraw from Effexor however, I have not ever felt my normal self since. I am very fearfull that I will never feel normal again! If there in anyone reading this that has suggestions I would most certainly appreciate it.
I've also been suffering with Effexor for over 10 years. I'd like to participate in a class action law suit as well. I'm a BC resident, but I don't know where to start.
It is day 24 for me. Our insurance company quit paying for it. I had to get off of it cold turkey. No wean period, just gone. This has been so terrible! I want to find an attorney also. I wish I would never have taken this terrible medication.
Taking this drug was the worst mistake of my life. It brought me to a point of disolution. I had no feelings and and judgment. I quit my job after 21 years and moved across the nation. Upon moving I did not have health insurance and had to stop taking effexor. The after effects where horrible. I sufferered severe anxiety the shakes, headeakes, weaknes and more then I can mention at this time. thank you
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I know your pain ! I was given this drug for my depression. After taking it for some time , i developed nervous ticks that I could only controll if I concentrated just on that . Other wise my legs would jump out of control. I got told the doctor , they said I would have to slowly come off it over a long period of time.....BS I wasnt going to wait around for this c**p to ruin me. I quit cold turkey. My doctor was angery said I couldnt do that . I said like hell I did. I had the same "electrocution" problem. Every 5 or ten second it felt as thought I had an electric charge run from my head to my toes...and I would jump! Freaking doctors ! It was a terrible time getting off those drugs, never again will I blindly trust a doctor and their drugs ! Let me know if you get a law suit going I am mad as hell about what I went through getting of this drug ! Ray in Iowa.
Hi Ray I have also had terrible experiences on Efexor. I also live in Australia I to would be in favour of a Class Action. Hopeing to hear from you. Janette
Please contact me if anyone starts or hears about a class action law suit against Effexor! I am 100% in and have 20 years of stories to share.
I have been interested in engaging the idea of class action lawsuit against the company that first launched Effexor.
I was diagnosed with ADD/Depression shortly before my parents found out I was using heroin at the age of 25 in 1995, my diagnosing internal specialist had originally put my on prozac for a period which I did not continue after relapsing under our agreement if I did I would drop the prozac due to heroin potentiating side effects.
Upon being detoxed once again the same specialist decided effexor would be a better suiting medication.
He claimed that "heroin addicts seem to do better with effexor" than typical SSRI's, and the sexual side effects were less, or non existent, and actually I assume some people benefit from sexual motivation when using effexor, as well the saturation period of prozac was not needed with effexor.
I actually liked effexor....I still think its a good/great anti dep from SOME people....complex, mixed agonist activity, on serotonin and dopamine, etc.
One problem I noticed immediately, literally the day I started and for weeks after, is that people at my job, NA meeting, at home started accusing me of being on speed, and that I was "too happy". I had never taken to stimulants really, and had resisted stimulant treatment for ADD for a few years. This was a frustrating situation to get off of heroin, and then be cross examined for taking a legal prescription anti dep. while AVOIDING the legal stimulant medication I had every right to be prescribed if I had wanted.
my opiate addiction problem was not soon handled.....I relapsed several times, once I had to go to jail and turn myself in for missing a court date, I detoxed before turning myself in, and then had to detox off of effexor because the jail still didn't stock it, and I didn't want to bother my DR to fill another script, or bother my parents to do any more than they already had. I had no idea kicking effexor would be worse than kicking heroin.
I had to withdraw from effexor once more after that, which was considerably harder as I was not locked up in jail. My father and great grandfather both committed suicide when younger men, and I had a bit of a view into the mindset that withdrawal period.
that was around 1997, by 2000 I had quit heroin once again after a few relapses, after trying naltrexone therapy, methadone maintenance and methadone detox programs and a stint at a halfway house program of the sober type (self admitted, with no court over site or probation, I have never had a felony, and have had more court ordered drug class's for cannabis than my one ordered for heroin use)
At this point I went back to college in 2001, while maintaining heroin abstinence by eating poppy seeds bought at grocery stores, and researching various forms of mild opioids found in food, herbs, or nootropics.
I had taken a biology class, amongst other science classes, and was also spending an greater amount of personal time researching chemistry and pharmacology at the state university library.
In my biology class I struck up a conversation with other students....at this point I was 31 years old, 3 females in that one class were all addicted to effexor.
Their remarks on withdrawal struck me as quite similar to mine, but none of them were opiate medication or heroin addicts, nor had they THOUGHT they had been addicted to opioids of the synthetic type.
After the class I called my mother and She told me she was starting effexor.
I told her to wait a few days and went up to the library to scan the Merck index pharmacological/pharmacognosy reference.
I had just come off using poppy seeds which contain an appreciable amount of opium alkaloids for a few months, I had used tramadol to facilitate the opium ween, which was an interesting recent launched prescription opioid used for pain, that also had serotonin and dopamine side effects that seemed to benefit me with my ADD/Depression issues.
I was shocked to find in the merck index, that tramadol, and effexor, shared considerable structural affinity, and the chemical formula was so damn close I would consider them analogs rather than two separate medication types.
now, I am not a chemist, and have had few chemistry class's....but I did learn a fair amount in the drug abuse/recreational abuse arena.....so take my statements with a grain of salt.
What I personally believe is that the makers of effexor knew full and well that effexor has addictive mu opioid binding affinity, they knew that BEFORE they launched the drug, they designed the drug utilizing rational drug design strategy, the opioid receptor binding studies were done, and for a time, listed in resources I came across.....the drug has broadly effected many people unaware of what opiate withdrawal feels like.
In my experience I had thought the experience was worse than heroin withdrawal, because of the spatial disorientation side effects (body shocks) that were IN ADDITION to the classic opiate withdrawal symptoms, as well as considerable unease and mental instability that made heroin addiction lethargy and insomnia seem preferable by a long shot.
Interestingly, I found tramadol, which is SUPPOSED to be a stronger opioidergic compound related to effexor, to have MUCH less severe withdrawal effects when appropriately handled....so much so, that I found myself using tramadol as a go to aid when weening from my intermittent grocery store poppy seed regimen I had settled with in my regular diet as a means to avoid opiate addiction to heroin or oxycontin/methadone.
The folks who brought us effexor I believe ignored the benefit of informing their customers about possible opioid addiction type tolerance effects when ramping up effexor dosage.
The pharmacognosist scientists who performed the pharmacokinetic studies were probably within the legal window of NOT informing the general public when the drug was first researched.....but by the time thousands of people started experiencing that particular hell, I would be willing to wager that the incident effected FAR LOWER than the 1 in 30,000 it takes to get the warnings put in the literature.
Hell, the FDA let Pfizer slide for DECADES knowing that 1 in 100 people might experience suicidal/homicidal thoughts or actions when taking prozac....they finally got pinched in that matter, that a 1 in 30,000 ratio is a point for major concern and divulging to the general public, a 1 in 100 ratio is obviously out of line, and probably a sign that the FDA has some problems with more than just guiding the public and enforcing commodity markets.
the reason my Dr guessed that "heroin addicts seem to do well with effexor" was because of efficacy studies on populations of patients.....my Dr should have been provided with the literature by the company that created effexor that outlined that effexor IS an opioid.
I am not a drug prohibitionist, I do not have ill will towards my diagnosing physician, he is actually a great DR, busy as any good DR should or can be.
I actually got a job once just because of my knowledge of the merck index, I study pharmacognosy, addiction, biology, phytochemistry and other area's of scientific interest that intersect drugs, chemicals, foods, plants/herb etc, I do not think ANY medication should be resigned to schedule 1, as I know that even outdated/outmoded drug, chemicals , etc can resurface in target research and have new potential sometimes a century after falling into disuse.
I think effexor is a great medication for the right people, and I think that with proper education of physicians that can properly inform their patients, nightmares like "we" have suffered could have been easily avoided by proper tolerance management, titration, substitution therapy, proper weening, and outpatient counseling. This is a proper way to deal with patients who are in methadone programs, chronic pain treatment, suboxone replacement therapy, or for patients using opiates short term.
its a different world now nearly 20 years from my first experience with an "anti depressant" that was more of an opioid that I don't think I needed when coming off of a heroin addiction period.
"we" now know that morphine and codeine are ENDOGENOUS compounds, endocrine messengers, neurotransmitters, that are produced in the brains and white blood cells of MANY mammals and other animals like reptiles, amphibians, down to some invertebrates.
I can't help but wonder why it took SO LONG to discover that the first compounds isolated for modern pharmacological study , that is, morphine and codeine, nearly 200 years ago, have only been empirically PROVEN in the last 15-20 years, to be a latter stage of endogenous biosynthesis of neurotransmitters that take up after dopamine is produced.
instead of being fed a chemical that I was not informed had opioid effects, after JUST withdrawing from heroin abuse, I could have possibly been an informed patient that was warned of such possible side effects.
If I would've known at that time, avoiding morphine and codeine is IMPOSSIBLE from the perspective that my body needs to make those compounds for any number of various endocrine and probably other reasons, I might have been able to make a decision based on knowledge rather than blind pathos.
Hello,
I would be intrested to join. Currently trying to stop Efexor and it is a nightmare. Please, feel free to contact me oif you still want to do anyhting about it.
Barbara
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I dont want to even try to describe everything I have been through because of Effexor. I am profoundly regrettful of every having gone down the clearly dangerous route of trusting a doctors advise when talking about symptoms pertaining to depression. I too have been through all kinds of hell and interference with my moods and resulting breakup and loss of more than I want to talk about here. Trying to get off has been hell - and I just had no idea what was happening.....why I had bone crushing pain.......forced to see a psychiatrist for mystery symptoms. It was hell to be in my body until I went back on Effexor. A year later I tried to get back off the 150mg again. This time again I didnt notice anything significant at first but then symptoms began sneaking up on me..... my rib cage felt like it was trying to squeeze me to death, my stomach felt like a brimstone or something hurting like all blazes, I felt like I had firecrackers going off in my intestines, I honestly believed I was dying a slow agonizing death. I also had pins and needles going on in various parts of my body including vagina. I could not deal with food. Over ten months I lost 15 kgs. I couldnt deal with people. I couldnt sleep. I spent one whole night just pacing round the sofa in pain. I ended up taking a plane and long taxi ride to a place I read was where people jump off to suicide - thats how deranged and crazed I felt. I didnt really want to die though - and looking down from a great height comtemplating such a thing is horrendously scary. I caught a plane back to my city. I tried various holistic healers and spiritual healers. To cut a longer story short by this time I was with a case worker in mental health. She didnt understand what was happening. My family iof origin didnt understand what was happening. A man I met claimed he would be able to help me through certain spiriutal practice if I stayed with him out in the country for a few days. Days went by..... I felt crazed with pain. I felt like my brain was burning or something. I felt like I was tipping into some deeper hell of crazy world and never coming back. Horrendous abdominal digestive and elimination problems. Indescribable. I went back to the place I was staying knowing I had to get on a plane again to go and jump - rather than this slow agonizing death. I believed I had no choice. . Meanwhile when I got back to where I was staying the police visited me telling me I had been reported a missing person. For the fourth time I got on a plane. It was all crazed thinking For the second time I got picked up by the police walking round and around this known suicide area at the early hours of the morning in a distressed state. For months I had hardly any sleep. Constant pain and fear.....waking up in a state of terror when I did get to doze at night. Horrible dreams. I got taken for the secend time to a psych ward. This time I had to go through a tribunal. I was in the hosp9ital under lock up for five weeks. I pretended to take the effexor they put me back on...... spitting it out again after - I wanted to do more research about all this before absolutely having to go back on it this time. They had also prescribed an antipsycotic. The medics dont believe your symptoms. Eventually a family menber went over interstate to collect me. I got back to my home state again and admited to low security mental health clinic where Efffexor had caused me to be before. By this time after the agony I had continued to experience I knew I had to go back on this evil drug. On 75mg now - it being enough to stop all the hell. Massive relief to feel human again but want to sue the hell out of the makers of this shitdrug. I am very very scared about what it has done to my brain and body. And wonder how the hell to ever get off. Im in Australia. Michele