My doctor put me on Effexor XR recently. I dinf that I am extremely tired at night after taking it in the morning, and that I have night sweats. Does anyone else have problems with the side effects? If so, how long do they last?

Hi,
When I first started taking Effexor I was having many side effects. What dose did you start on? I started on the lowest dose and worked up. The first thing I experienced was headaches and constipation. After I reached 150mg I was getting horrible heartburn I took Pepcid Complete and it helped. After about a week the heartburn let up. When dose was raised to 225mg I experienced tremors in my right hand. I think I was told it was too much dopamine so my dose was lowered to 150mg again but the tremors have not gone away. I felt better for about two weeks and then crashed again. I think I'm more depressed now then when I started the therapy.

BPech,

I take 75mg in the morning and 37.5 at night. One interesting thing I have found, is that I have VERY intense dreams (when I do sleep, which is not very often). The dreams are like full-length movies, and sometimes are disturbing.

I started on the 37.5 and have been on 75 for a few months now. To start with the exhaustion was overwhelming. I took my pill late afternoon and slept from after dinner till morning. That lasted a couple weeks. Almost immediately though I felt my brain kick in. It actually works now. I did have some skin problems that have eased. Also went through some nausea and constipation and weight gain. I have since been taking about 1/2 out of the capsules ( I know I shouldn't) and I still feel as good mentally plus the extra weight has gone as well as the constipation. I should also mention that I did have alot of dreadful dreams, mostly to do with death and very very vivid. They have eased up somewhat.

[This message has been edited by stprdi (edited 03-27-2003).]