Mental Health Curious side effects - venlafaxine and gabapentin

[penultimate]

I'm prescribed Effexor 75mg ER and 3600mg gabapentin (the max amount) daily. I was switched to Effexor from Prozac recently as it didn't seem to be doing much. The effects of Effexor on the other hand have been quite pronounced for me and it's great -I finally feel like I'm taking a real anti-depressant. I notice some interesting side effects with both:

-Effexor makes alcohol much less appealing. I get hot and sweaty drunk, and not even mild euphoria. It's similar to Naltrexone in that respect, which I have taken in the past

-Gabapentin totally kills my caffeine buzz. I get no effect from drinking the strongest coffee, every cup is like decaf. Serious bummer.

-Gabapentin also has lowered my blood pressure 10 points. That's not an exaggeration; nurses checking my BP have repeatedly asked me if I get dizzy when I stand up. That never happened before I started taking it.

For me, gabapentin is kind of a miracle anti-anxiety med. It's super safe, non-addictive and easy to quit. Yes you build up a tolerance quickly, bioavailability is self limiting, etc so good luck getting high off it. Maybe subtle but it's effect is clearly present and systemic - I have less anxiety and my lowered BP is real.

Effexor on the hand strikes me as a very powerful drug. I've read the withdrawal horror stories. I'm thinking an exit strategy after a couple of years max with a very gradual taper. If long term alcohol use can cause permanent changes in the brain whose to say this doesn't.

Both of these drugs together do work well for me. I am interested in seeing what a higher dose of Effexor does. Apparently >200mg is where the norepinephrine kicks in. I have no idea what that sensation is like, at my current dose but I have a bunch extra I can experiment with. I'm actually a little scared to do so. Any advice appreciated, thank you!

 

[paranoid android]

^ I would just like to point out that in my experience gabapentin is anything but non addictive. I have had bad withdrawals from this med numerous times in fact. The withdrawals are similar to benzo wd's with abit of opiate withdrawals thrown in. The RLS i get when stopping gabapentin is absolutly horrible and only the morphine i take stops it.

As for effexor i took that to back in 2003 and i had the worst withdrawals from any medication ive tried. I have quit Fentanyl and even morphine and clonazepam combined cold turkey but the effexor withdrawals beat them. That's how bad it is.

I did have alot of different reactions then you to effexor though. For instance i found i could drink quite abit more on effexor then when i didnt take it and not get drunk. I also got high blood pressure from this med.

 

[penultimate]

^ I would just like to point out that in my experience gabapentin is anything but non addictive. I have had bad withdrawals from this med numerous times in fact. The withdrawals are similar to benzo wd's with abit of opiate withdrawals thrown in. The RLS i get when stopping gabapentin is absolutly horrible and only the morphine i take stops it.

As for effexor i took that to back in 2003 and i had the worst withdrawals from any medication ive tried. I have quit Fentanyl and even morphine and clonazepam combined cold turkey but the effexor withdrawals beat them. That's how bad it is.

I did have alot of different reactions then you to effexor though. For instance i found i could drink quite abit more on effexor then when i didnt take it and not get drunk. I also got high blood pressure from this med.

Wow, that's fascinating, and thanks. It never even occurred to me to lookup gabapentin withdrawal. Your experience with Effexor withdrawal alarms me and it echoes almost everything I've read; universally awful. I also don't like the way it ups my BP and sometimes I can feel a vague tightness in my chest and it doesn't seem to be going away. How can that be healthy for anybody I'm two months in but I'm going to start tapering off right away. Venlafaxine works for me but I need to know what my withdrawal risk is.. And that sounds like good advice for anybody starting venlafaxine; from everything I've learned I look at it as borderline dangerous at this point. Again, thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[n3ophy7e]

Wow, that's fascinating, and thanks. It never even occurred to me to lookup gabapentin withdrawal. Your experience with Effexor withdrawal alarms me and it echoes almost everything I've read; universally awful. I also don't like the way it ups my BP and sometimes I can feel a vague tightness in my chest and it doesn't seem to be going away. How can that be healthy for anybody I'm two months in but I'm going to start tapering off right away. Venlafaxine works for me but I need to know what my withdrawal risk is.. And that sounds like good advice for anybody starting venlafaxine; from everything I've learned I look at it as borderline dangerous at this point. Again, thanks for sharing your experience.

In my opinion, doctors really should go WAY more in to the details of withdrawal symptoms with patients prior to starting them on any antidepressants, but unfortunately they don't. Then after being on it for however long and you either want to get off it or need to trial a different medication, by then it's too late and you need to find out the hard way how horrendous the withdrawals are