Posted by noa on March 1, 2003, at 22:27:13
In reply to Re: twitching/tremors on Effexor?, posted by lovemybabies on February 28, 2003, at 23:39:41
I have written about the muscle twitching a lot here at babble. I currently take Effexor Xr, and at higher doses I had the twitches, called myoclonus. I also had this with Paxil. It is no longer much of a problem. What my pdoc and I decided was to lower the effexor dose and add serzone, which supposedly blocks the 5HT2 receptors, which activate the muscles, and also to add more antidepressant effect since I had lowered the effexor. This strategy works pretty well. Of course, even with the myoclonus gone, I still have a lot of activation from effexor, and in addition to the serzone, I need a small dose (quarter of a mg) of ativan to help me fall asleep. Otherwise, I am fidgety and have restless legs, which is not the twitching, but the uncontrollable urge to move my legs. The difference is that the restless legs is somewhat volitional--the urge feels irrepressible, but it can in fact be suppressed for a few moments, although it is extremely uncomfortable to do so. The twitching, or myoclonus, is completing involuntary and random. I couldn't purposely flex some of the muscles that flex from myoclonus--random little muscles all over the body.
Sorry you had to go through all that invasive testing for this SE.
poster:noa
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030301/msgs/205175.html