Posted by zinya on August 3, 2003, at 21:11:13
In reply to effexor xr for chronic pain (esp. zinya) , posted by bori on August 3, 2003, at 19:56:48
hi bori,
it's interesting to me and rather coincidental that my chief source of pain is also pelvic (i just wrote a lengthy post about it two days ago over on a thread on the main website page - if interested and you can't find it, let me know - it was to someone with initials JRB who had lots of research expertise in what seemed to be a related area and i presented my situation to him for any thoughts he might have as to pain-energy-brain-depression connections)
For me, since my pain flare-ups trigger a complete loss of energy and from there a floundering into depression, what my md. focused on was that the norepinehprine effects would address the energy (adrenal system) depletion rather than pain per se, but since they're so intertwined for me, maybe he viewed it all as one. I see him again this week and will probably add this to my list of Q's...
Actually, by mentioning what your md said about 225 mgs, you've finally given the most sourced answer yet to a question i've been almost begging for an answer to for a couple of months here. One poster here had mentioned that the norep. effects don't kick in til 150 mgs, which i sought to get confirmed in vain, except another poster now at 300 did remember 2 weeks of almost hyper energy when she hit 150 and then it tapered into something more equilibrated.. But i got to 150 2 weeks ago and the only signs i've seen yet are just in the past 2 days that maybe i'm getting a noticeable increase - though too soon to tell for sure as it's very gradual, not like the woman's sudden uptick experience. If there's one rule you learn fast here, it's that the very same med and dose can have opposite effects on two different people. The uniqueness of our individual systems makes it impossible to predict what one's own body will do. My own 'progress' on it may or may not have been negatively impacted by the fact i've managed to rotate my lumbar twice in the past two months, which my chiropractor for 6 yrs who is a genius had, of all my 'tricks' never seen me do before, and the pain has been more pronounced in the course of dealing with that. Pain and energy and hormones and brain chemistry are all so interrelated along with surely a bunch of other things too that it's hard to isolate one factor and say "aha! there's the culprit!" ...
well, i welcome you and wish you well... I'll look for your postings to see how you're doing and if you learn more as you go, let me know and i'll do the same...
zinya
p.s. btw, do you take your effexor on a full stomach? i take mine at night after dinner on my fullest stomach of the day and for me it has worked fine also in terms of sleep etc... I had SOME nausea the very first morning after my first dose (which was only half - 19 mg - of a 37.5, cuz i'd had so much nausea and intolerable side effect on previous other a-d's that i took it twice as slowly as even the minimum -- took me 2 months to get up to 150 mg. instead of one, much as i was impatient to get there, i also didn't want to risk bad side effects.)
> Hi,
>
> I am on day two of effexor xr 37.5. I am using it primarily for chronic (pelvic) pain and secondarily for the anxiety that has surfaced around dealing with this and another chronic pain problem while continuing with the rest of my life. I was not happy to take effexor xr from all I read here, but other than tricylics (that I feared would sedate me and make me gain weight even more) it seems to be the only one to act on norepinephrine and pain. Now I am wondering if it was worth it because I feel so nauseous and a little light-headed and my shoulders hurt and I need to get up over 150 for this to work on pain (my doc said 225 but I hope it is lower). Anyhow, I want to know if anyone had success with it for treating pain and how long it took before side effects wore off. Thanks for your help!
poster:zinya
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030802/msgs/247890.html