painful acne & effexor

I have been on Venlafaxine for about 10 months. It has helped my mood tremendously! I was originally prescribed Venlafaxine ER tablet. Then my insurance wouldn't cover the tablet, but they would cover the tablet (weird, I know). So I switched to Venlafaxine capsule twice a day since it wasn't extended release (ER). Now that I'm on the capsule, my acne has gotten so much worse. It takes forever to heal and I had two more pop up today at work. I tried washing my pillowcases more regularly, washing my face 3 times a day, etc. But I finally found this forum and I'm glad I'm not alone in this reaction. It's mostly my chin, and I don't sit with my hands on there or anything. I had no major acne problems when I was on the tablet. I'm switching back! Thanks for all the posts and making me feel not so alone :)

i just started venlafaxine about a month ago & am experiencing the same acne issues as described by everyone else. i want to thank you for your post, i just filled a prescription for capsules, which i haven't taken any of. i will see if my pharmacy would be willing to switch the capsules to tablets so i can try that before i have to try a different med, because the effexor is really helping me. hoping i can arrange this, my pharmacy is usually pretty accommodating. i've also put on a good bit of weight from the depression, so i would feel so good if i could get rid of the acne, i seem to be getting the overeating under control finally.

was able to get brand name effexor, seemed to improve acne but now seems to be escalating again. i'm going to try to stay on it for a while & see if it subsides, but it's amazing how fast some of these massive breakouts occur. i'm llooking into alternatives to try.

OMG...I cannot believe I have FINALLY found someone else with this horrible problem. Due to depression, I have been toying with starting venoflaxin, the generic version of effexor, and over the last 3 month or so, although I was worried about the addiction and withdrawl that is attributed to this medication. I did go ahead and start taking it for a few weeks, then stopped. I have done this three times, with the last stint having me on it for about a month. I was only taking the 37.5mg dose. 

I am 50, and just now entering memopause. My doc said along with heping my mild depression, the effexor would help with hot flashes too, which is why I broke down and starting taking it regulary. Now that I look back, this current HORRID acne I have now acquired began about the same time. I have been told acne was not a side effect to effexor, and couldn't find it listed much at all as a side effect. But what I started questioning was this horrible acne that has taken over my life. Although I have had acne in the past (the one major time was around my thirties), I went on antibiotice for several years, and gradually, the bad acne went away. After that, I would occasionally get a pimple, or zit, and sometimes have a couple at a time, but they would always go away within 5 days or so. But this recent nightmare is not stopping.

I develped the most painful type of acne I have ever had. It seems to have a small head to the pimple, or soar area, but it never actually comes to the surface, so it can be squeezed out. It's as if it just stays there and cause the skin around it to get sore, itch and infected. A few weeks ago, I got sick of it, and decided to pick the hell out of it. I was going to dig whatever was in there out, cause I was tired of it hurting, and never going away. Well, what occured was a huge round skin blotch, almost like an infection from a burn. It oozed, and was itchy, and hurt. As it began to "heal" a large brown ring formed around it. The pimples will not come to a head, or come out, no matter what you do. If you pick at them you get a scab, and when the scab comes off, theres a kind of crater left, where the actual pimple thing is still down there in the crater somewhere in your skin, but now there a round scar, and the crater thing is still sore, and still stays irritated, itchy, and red.

I have never had ANYTHING like this. I have about a dozen of these blemishes on my face and neck. I also had one develop on my lip. It seemed to start out as a fever blister thing, but it also kept scabbing over, leaving a crater, and has not went away, and it's been a month. Now, I have noticed one on my scalp, and one in my nose. I stopped taking effexor last week because it I realized it was ONLY thing that I changed about my routine, and I was determined to find the source of this problem. I got so worried about this acne causing scarring, and I also am so embaressed to even leave the house. I have just stayed home as much as I could, trying  not to use cosmetics, because I didn't want to make it worse, but I have had to start trying to cover it up, or I would not even dare have people see me.

I cannot believe that this is considered a rare side effect. I am not a person who has problems taking meds. I don't develop side effects at all hardly. One thing though, I do have excema, and I also remember back in my forties, I went to get restalin put in my lips to make them fuller. I developed 7 fever blisters, and my doc said I should have gotten a shot prior, but apparently no one asked me whether I was prone to fever blisters or not. She said any one who has a history of fever blisters must be pre-treated before injected, because they will inevitably develop fever blisters as a result of the injections. Needless to say, I decided to be ok with my thin lips after all. Still, perhaps this also contributes to who will have this side effect and who will not. Also, my exzema rarely surfaces anymore, still I am wondering if only the people who have pre-existing skin disorders are the ones at risk for this type of acne.

I am also wondering if anyone can answer this question...all together, I have probably only been on the drug to a total of 2 months. I have been off, cold turkey, for about a week now and I STILL am having more blemishes show up. How long does it take for the breaking out to stop, or will it? Will I continue to have this now, even though I no longer take effexor? Does anyone have any idea or personal experience.

I am so angry that this is not documented as one of the side effects, though I must confess, I generally do not develop side effects from medications, so even if it was listed as a minor side effect, I doubt it would have stopped me. However, I think it may be possible that anyone with skin disorders already, such as excema, herpes (fever blisters)  may be more prone. Now if they said that, THAT would have gotten my attention.

Any information as to how long, or if this will ever go away, would be extrememly helpful.

 

I started taking Effexor 4 days ago and almost instantly developed small blister like bumps all over the lower half of my face. They are dry and feel like scales. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, is it just an initial side effect and will go away or is it something that will get worse?

Yes it is related. Venlafaxine can cause the body to stop breaking down fats. They cannot be absorbed into the cells. This causes many problems like acne, itchy loose skin, and many more of the side effects listed in the documentation for this medication. I started using a lipase supplement to combat the acne and skin problems. I've used it for a year, and now I'm weaning myself off this drug. I can't stand it anymore.

I have been on venlafaxine (effexor) for 5 months now and since have developed terrible acne like eruptions on the skin of my face, back and even buttocks.
Some are cystic type acne, others are oddly itchy pimples with scaly skin which I cannot help but scratch open until I am a bloody pulp.
I had quite bad acne when I was young (i am in my 50s), but it seems to be that it must be the medication that is causing this terrible outbreak as it is the only significant variable which has changed.

Any advice as to how to stop these terrible pimple like eruptions? Thank you.

Just coming off Effexor now myself and am also getting an acne breakout, particularly bad on my back. Hasn't been a problem while on the drug but certainly is coming off the drug. I also missed a couple of days of dosage and got a big shock from the awful side-effects. That has scared me enough to wanting to get off this drug immediately. The brain zaps are awful!!

After 3 years I have begun to reduce my daily dose of Venlafaxine from 150 mg/day. It seems that the skin lesions that began 3 years ago and took so long to heal are now healing more rapidly. However, there are so many variables (cardio-vascular medication, etc.) that I'm not sure I can correlate it with the dose of venlafaxine.

I am 65 and have had terrible breakouts on my back. Now I realize where it is coming from. I am not sure what to do as Effexor has been like a miracle drug for my depression. I had never connected the two until now. I don't know of any other medication that will work as good as Effexor has. Any suggestions?

Hi all : )
For the past 10 days i have been weaning off Venlafaxine XL 300mg / day after being on this evil anti-depressant for 6 years !
After only the 5th day of reducing my dose to only 150 mg /day i woke in the morning to find that from across my chin to all the way across both cheeks amd even on my eye lids i had brolen out in sore itchy hard red acne : @
I was so shocked and upset as i didnt know where or why they had came .from.
So me being me i contacted my trusted bessie friend GOOGLE Lol. And here is where i found all of you fellow sufferers.
So to start i would like to send you all my best wishes and to say as we can all see...we are not alone (thank goodness).
I am also here to share with you my fellow sufferers that for the past 7 days now i have been using Witch Hazel from the Pharmacy twice a day, morning and evening (liquid form) and cleansing all of the areas of Acne (my whole face) and i have had great results. The itching has stopped, the redness has reduced and the acne has dramatically reduced in size and has became dry...so im guessing (well hoping) that it wont be much longer untill it fully clears up !!
I hope me sharing this with you guys will help as it has helped me.

My kindest thoughts are with you all and im hoping the rest of my journey ( changing to Sertraline) and everyone elses journey in the land of Anti-Depressants is a smooth one !!! We can only hope...but sometimes hope is all you need !!

LOVE N LIGHT
Karla xx

I have been taking effexor (venlafaxine) for almost 2 years and almost immediately after starting I began to have acne on my face and legs (which seemed strange) but I never once thought about it being the medicine, so my MD sent me to dermatologist and she said it was a very rare exzema that started with a P. Prior to this I had perfect skin, and now after 2 years I can't even wear shorts, and really don't want to show my face in public it's so embarrassing!!! I feel like people think I do meth because I constantly have a acne sore on my face, when one heals (which takes forever) another one shows up (uggh). then I began to sweat profusely which is so aggravating! so my doc reduced my dosage from 2 (75mg) capsules to 1 (75mg) capsule a day and that dI'd not help, I am so frustrated and when I see my doc in 2 weeks I am gunna demand to come off this medicine. I am so glad that I saw this forum or I never would have thought it could be the effexor!!!!

Thank you for that info, I will be purchasing witch hazel tomorrow!!!

I started Effexor 37.5 mg about 3 weeks ago, and my face is breaking out bad! Most of it is little red bumps all over my forehead, and my forehead is really oily. I have always had acne since I was a teenager, but never this bad. I am going on 36 now. I suspect the Effexor is making my acne worse! My mood is a lot better; I'm actually sleeping at night and have energy to do stuff during the day, but my face is horrible now!

My chest is breaking out too, little red and white bumps--on my chest and my face that don't seem to come to a head. They're just there, and my face is all red and blotchy. I think I am going to look into other medications or natural alternatives.