Have you been prescribed Venlafaxine and are unsure about this medication? Your concern is not unfounded, as this antidepressant does have some dangerous downsides. Depending on whether the medication was prescribed for depression or an anxiety disorder, there are several things you should definitely be aware of:
Overview of All Topics
Venlafaxine - Application Area: Depression
Want to go directly to the section on anxiety disorders? Click HERE.
If you are suffering from depression and your doctor has prescribed Venlafaxine as a hopeful medication, they have likely done so with the best intentions. However, in recent years, there have been studies that classify this antidepressant as not nearly as harmless and well-tolerated as often claimed. Additionally, regarding its effectiveness, there are increasing critical voices advising against Venlafaxine and other antidepressants.
In fact, according to the latest findings, these medications do not perform better than placebos—harmless sugar pills—in cases of mild to moderate depression. Unlike the placebo, however, Venlafaxine has numerous potential side effects that can even worsen your condition. If you find this hard to believe, I have linked an interesting article with all relevant facts further down in the text.
Venlafaxine – Allegedly Much Better Than Older Tricyclic Antidepressants
Venlafaxine is also marketed under the brand names Efexor, Efectin, and Trevilor. There is also a delayed-release version of Trevilor, known as Trevilor Retard. These extended-release capsules are often promoted as being more tolerable because the active ingredient is released more slowly.
The German Medical Journal describes Venlafaxine as a highly effective medication due to its novel chemical structure, which is unrelated to the older tricyclic antidepressants. This supposedly reduces the dangerous side effects on the heart, bronchi, intestines, bladder, and sweat glands. In contrast, Venlafaxine is said to be much more selective and tolerable. However, “more selective and tolerable” does not mean “well-tolerated,” but rather “not as harmful.” Accordingly, the package insert for Venlafaxine lists numerous side effects that occur frequently or very frequently. Clearly, “well-tolerated” or “harmless” looks quite different.
Side Effects of Venlafaxine Using Trevilor as an Example
The list of side effects for Venlafaxine, which you might take in the form of Trevilor® extended-release capsules, is long: Very common side effects (affecting more than 10% of patients) include nausea, headaches, dizziness, drowsiness, insomnia, sweating, dry mouth, and constipation. Additionally, patients frequently (up to 10%) experience other side effects that can be dangerously destabilizing for the body. To name just a few: heart rhythm disturbances, muscle stiffness, severe restlessness, loss of sexuality, significant vision problems, skin diseases, and consciousness disturbances such as hallucinations.
A special note on taking Venlafaxine-Ratiopharm extended-release tablets during pregnancy underscores the drug’s significant impact on the entire body. During pregnancy, the child’s development must be monitored with a special ultrasound examination, as Venlafaxine can cause serious health problems in the newborn.
By the way, the side effects of the competing products Efexor® and Efectin® are hardly any better.
Venlafaxine – Long Breakdown Time and Life-Threatening Interactions
The intake of Venlafaxine is definitely not as harmless as some doctors claim. It is also interesting to know how quickly the active ingredient leaves the body and what interactions it has with other medications.
When taken as a single dose, the maximum serum concentration of Venlafaxine in the blood is reached after about two hours. With repeated dosing, the drug reaches steady-state blood levels after about three days. The antidepressant is metabolized 90% in the gastrointestinal tract. When it passes through the liver, it produces O-desmethylvenlafaxine, an active metabolite. While Venlafaxine leaves the body after approximately 5 hours, O-desmethylvenlafaxine remains in the body for an additional 10 hours. Therefore, patients with liver or kidney impairment should avoid Venlafaxine or take it in a very low daily dose under close medical supervision. Additionally, taking it with other medications can lead to the unwanted accumulation of various substances in the body. In combination with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, there is a risk of prolonged bleeding duration, which can be life-threatening for patients with stomach ulcers.
Severe Withdrawal Symptoms
Unfortunately, these are not all the bad news about Venlafaxine. If you take this medication for months and suddenly stop, you should expect severe withdrawal symptoms. The package insert for Venlafaxine extended-release capsules warns against abrupt discontinuation of the dose. The symptoms that can occur resemble a horror scenario from a medical thriller: vomiting, trembling, increased blood pressure, flu-like symptoms, electric shock-like sensations, severe aggression, and suicidal thoughts.
It becomes even more dangerous if you suffer from a so-called relapse syndrome. During this withdrawal syndrome, previous depressive phases intensify, which may lead you to mistake these symptoms for a recurrence of depression, prompting your doctor to prescribe antidepressants again, this time with an increased dose. This can lead to a vicious cycle of constantly trying new antidepressants and resulting in medication addiction.
Therefore, you should never abruptly or independently stop taking Venlafaxine or other antidepressants. Instead, you should gradually reduce the medication in consultation with your treating physician.
Antidepressants as Saviors: A Myth and Its History
You have probably read or heard from your doctor that depression is caused by a disrupted neurotransmitter metabolism in the brain, involving serotonin, norepinephrine, or dopamine. The idea that the delicate metabolism in the brain can go haywire has become ingrained in the public consciousness. Treating with medications that are supposed to restore this balance seems logical. But is this really true?
Let me briefly tell you about the history of antidepressants. Prepare for the unexpected:
On December 29, 1987, a new antidepressant from the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly was launched in the USA. The drug was called Prozac, and thanks to the company’s massive advertising campaign, it quickly became the star of antidepressants. Time Magazine celebrated Prozac as the “Pill of the Year,” a pill that makes you happy around the clock without side effects! But how was it possible for Prozac to be marketed to society and doctors as a true wonder drug, and for the myth to persist to this day?
It is essential to know that the treatment of choice for depression at the time was tricyclic antidepressants. These are now referred to as the “first generation” of antidepressant drugs. However, it was already clear back then that antidepressants caused severe side effects: cardiovascular disorders, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, sleep disturbances, weight gain, sedation, and sexual dysfunction. And the list of unwanted side effects and interactions is even longer.
Antidepressants – A Massive Advertising Campaign and Its Consequences
And this is precisely where Eli Lilly launched a sophisticated and aggressive advertising strategy, which turned out to be a severe misinformation campaign that still has repercussions today. The pharmaceutical giant advertised that Prozac, with its active ingredient fluoxetine, specifically restores serotonin balance in the brain and is also much more tolerable. A dangerous and misleading promise, as I will elaborate below.
Prozac was the first drug in this class of so-called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, abbreviated as SSRIs. Venlafaxine, with its active ingredient, belongs to the group of serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). These neurological acronyms represent the hypothesis that depression is caused by disrupted communication in the brain. Our brain consists of approximately ninety billion nerve cells. When one of these nerve cells registers a stimulus, it releases neurotransmitters, including serotonin and norepinephrine. These neurotransmitters enable nerve cells to communicate with each other, much like people having an animated conversation. According to numerous studies, these neurotransmitters must remain in balance, otherwise, signal transmission in the brain stalls. Figuratively speaking, the conversation between the nerve cells stumbles along and eventually dissolves into incomprehensible gibberish in our brain. This is then called depression.
Given the complex terms that explain how antidepressants work, pharmaceutical companies, both then and now, speak in simple language to patients seeking help: Antidepressants specifically target the chaos of neurotransmitters in our brain. This supposedly allows the happiness hormone serotonin to work better in the nerve cells and bring light and hope back into the dark emotional world of the affected individuals. This sounds too good to be true but still has an unwavering impact today. However, a closer look at the supposedly pharmacologically proven effects of antidepressants raises legitimate doubts.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Venlafaxine & Co.
For over 30 years, countless studies have supported the efficacy of antidepressants with numerous statistics and data. But it is only in recent years that more and more studies have come to light, empirically demonstrating that people with depression do not have problems with their neurotransmitter levels. This is a shocking fact, as it causes the medically carefully formulated justification for the use of antidepressants to collapse like a house of cards. And now, even current research questions the neurotransmitter hypothesis, as antidepressants, in many cases, have no effect beyond that of a placebo! The use of antidepressants is thus very questionable and shows only a short-term mood-lifting effect in the treatment of very severe depression. The current state of research is clearly illustrated by the findings of the study “Antidepressants more effective in treating depression than placebo” from Oxford.
You might be shaking your head in disbelief, wondering why the critical studies on antidepressants have not made it to the media until now. It is very difficult to refute and eradicate a once socially accepted opinion or claim. Think of the custom of drinking schnapps after a meal. The habit of drinking schnapps after a fatty meal is widespread because it supposedly aids digestion. However, the opposite is true: alcohol inhibits digestion and even delays stomach emptying. A walk or warm tea would actually be much better.
In this sense, you might also critically question the intake of antidepressants. While the effectiveness of antidepressants is scientifically very controversial today, the health risks are well documented. It almost seems that it is not the sufferers who benefit from antidepressants, but rather the pharmaceutical industry. The continuous increase in sales of these medications brings immense profits to the industry.
This is probably the moment you ask yourself: Is there a promising alternative to the pharmacological treatment of depression? The answer is yes! To find it, we should look at the possible causes of depression, which are generally often neglected or not mentioned at all.
Out of Depression: Recognize Little-Known Causes
I can understand if the idea of simply taking a pill to combat depression sounds appealing. Especially since the myth of the proven effectiveness of antidepressants persists in the public eye. However, the causes of depression are very complex, and such a deep emotional low does not occur overnight. Instead, there are numerous potential causes that influence each other, such as:
- A lack of BDNF proteins caused by insufficient exercise
- Side effects of medications that have been wrongly combined
- Food intolerances
- Deficiency in minerals, trace elements, and vitamins
- Chronic inflammation
- Changes in social behavior due to social media and mobile phones
- Unrecognized or poorly treated anxiety disorders
- Sleep disturbances and poor sleep habits
- Traumatic experiences and repressed grief
- Negative thinking and purposeful pessimism
- Forced changes in living conditions, such as during a lockdown
If one or more of these triggering factors apply to you, you can initially try to change as many of the circumstances leading to these trigger factors as possible. This often leads to a significant improvement in depressive phases.
If you have suffered from anxiety for a long time and no treatment has helped so far, this can also lead to depression. This also applies to the habit of viewing life predominantly from a negative perspective. Studies have shown that so-called purposeful pessimism does not protect against disappointment but is significantly involved in the development of depression.
For both anxiety disorders and a tendency towards purposeful pessimism, you should consider an alternative path instead of medicating with Venlafaxine or another antidepressant. This path involves specifically using the neuroplasticity of the brain to gradually dismantle the neurobiological foundations of anxiety and depression. This process requires neither medication nor painful confrontation processes. There is now an easy-to-use mental training method that can achieve remarkable results in just a few days. You can learn more about this gentle and highly effective therapy HERE.
Depression, Anxiety, and Negative Thoughts
You might not be familiar with the term “neuroplasticity of the brain” and wonder how it can help you escape depression. The potential causes of depression play a role here. It is often overlooked that depressive illnesses are frequently linked to persistent strong feelings of anxiety and pronounced negative thinking patterns. In this case, you can utilize your brain’s neuroplasticity to free yourself from depression. This involves a simple method that you can learn yourself: targeted mental training to create new positive neural structures in your brain. What sounds complicated is actually simple and based on the latest neurological findings.
When I first tell patients about this possibility, I often hear, “That won’t work for me! How am I supposed to train positive thoughts when there’s only emptiness, total lack of drive, or deep black sorrow?” But I can assure you, even the emptiness in your head and the deep black sorrow are based on thoughts. Behind them is a neuronally networked, negative thought structure that may have developed unnoticed in your head over the years. Eventually, these negatively influenced data paths outnumbered and the psychological effects became unstoppable.
If a certain way of thinking leads to depression, then there must be a way of thinking that reverses this process. This is precisely where the Bernhardt Method comes in. It’s not about murmuring a few positive mantras to yourself every day. Rather, it requires specific mental training that addresses all five senses in such a way that a “reprogramming” of a depressive brain can be achieved quickly.
Instead of Venlafaxine – Get to the Root Causes of Your Depression
When you’re deep in depression, the suggestion to actively investigate the causes to bring more joy to your life might sound like a cruel joke. However, it is worth getting to the root causes of your depression to feel significantly more joy in life again. The medication alternative doesn’t sound promising: You decide to take a drug that not only has numerous side effects but can also be addictive and often doesn’t even work properly!
How little Venlafaxine actually helps is shown by a quick look at the statistics: The drug is currently the third most prescribed psychotropic medication. But what does this mean concretely? As early as 2004, 643 million daily doses of antidepressants were prescribed in Germany according to the Drug Report. By 2013, this number had already risen to 1341 million daily doses per year – more than double in nine years. And this number continues to rise since 2013.
If antidepressants were as effective as often claimed, shouldn’t the number of illnesses significantly decrease or at least stagnate with such an increase in prescriptions? In fact, not only in Germany but worldwide, more and more depressive disorders are being recorded. Around 322 million people were affected by it in 2015 according to a study by the World Health Organization (WHO). That is 4.4 percent of the world’s population. An effective medication looks different, at least by my definition.
So, it is worth not only trusting the (frequently) empty promises of the pharmaceutical industry, but also doing something for your mental balance yourself.
Venlafaxine – Application Area: Anxiety Disorders
If you have also read the passage about depression, then you already know that according to recent studies, antidepressants (like Venlafaxine) do not work particularly well even for depression. In fact, they do not help any better than placebos, that is, harmless sugar pills, for mild, moderate, and not too severe cases. In contrast to placebos, however, Venlafaxine has a multitude of possible side effects that can even worsen your condition.
But if a medication is not even particularly helpful for the disease it is named after (antidepressant), how does it perform with conditions for which it was not originally developed? After all, antidepressants are now marketed as a cure for all sorts of problems: whether anxiety disorders, ADHD, burnout, eating and sleeping disorders, chronic pain, disc herniations, stress-related bladder weakness, premature ejaculation, or migraines, all of this can or should supposedly improve significantly with the use of antidepressants.
No wonder the number of prescriptions has more than doubled in the last 10 years. It’s odd, however, that none of the mentioned diseases have drastically decreased since then. Anxiety disorders, in particular, are on the rise and now affect over 14 million Germans.
The True Triggers of an Anxiety Disorder Cannot Be Eliminated by Venlafaxine
As tempting as the thought may be of treating dozens of diseases by manipulating a few neurotransmitters in the brain, it is just as unrealistic. Rarely can any of the mentioned diseases be reduced to just one single trigger. Especially for anxiety disorders, such as agoraphobia or generalized anxiety disorder, completely different causes are responsible than the alleged serotonin or norepinephrine deficiency.
The Four Main Triggers of an Anxiety Disorder
In many years of helping anxiety patients lead a beautiful and anxiety-free life again, we have mainly observed four triggers that causally lead to an anxiety disorder.
Cause Number 1: Ignored Warning Signals You may have overlooked or consciously ignored certain warning signals before your first anxiety attack, thereby unconsciously preparing for the initial onset of pathological anxiety. These warning signals are probably familiar to most of you, as they often manifest as psychosomatic complaints, such as stomach and intestinal problems, dizziness, hot flashes, unexplained back pain, or sleep disturbances.
Cause Number 2: Certain Substances That Can Trigger Anxiety and Panic These include primarily drugs, certain medications, but also some seemingly harmless foods. Among the drugs, it is mainly the active ingredient THC, but also MDMA (Ecstasy), cocaine, and psychedelic mushrooms (Magic Mushrooms) that can quickly lead to panic attacks. It doesn’t matter whether you are using these drugs for the first time or have long-term experience with them. EVERY SINGLE TIME, you expose yourself to the risk that your brain won’t do what you want. Among medications, neuroleptics and certain thyroid hormones can cause panic attacks. A change in medication can often work wonders.
Cause Number 3: Frequent Negative Thinking This also includes so-called PURPOSEFUL PESSIMISM. The way you think networks your brain anew every day. Brain automations are built up, which eventually ensure that it’s no longer YOU who controls your brain, but YOUR BRAIN controls you. Whether you inherited this way of thinking from your parents or certain experiences are responsible for it, focusing solely on the negative and the lack is NOT crucial for the occurrence of anxiety disorders. Many psychoanalysts of the old school like to claim this. For more information on this topic, we recommend Klaus Bernhardt’s Spiegel-Bestseller “Panikattacken und andere Angststörungen loswerden”.
Cause Number 4: The So-called Secondary Gain This occurs when sufferers not only suffer from their anxiety disorder but also gain a hidden advantage from it, often without being aware of it. For example, your partner may be more considerate and attentive since you developed an anxiety disorder. Or the illness serves as a legitimate excuse not to continue with a job that no longer brings joy. You may find this hard to imagine, but I regularly encounter this in my practice. Panic attacks disappear just like that, from one day to the next, simply because the person finally had the courage to look for a new, better job or leave a partner who has not been good for them for a long time.
Real Cause Investigation Instead of Venlafaxine
Before you take a medication for an anxiety disorder that is proven to be barely effective and has numerous, sometimes severe, side effects, try REAL CAUSE INVESTIGATION first. Especially considering that the list of side effects of Venlafaxine is quite long:
Side Effects of Venlafaxine
Very common (affecting more than 10% of patients) problems include:
- Headaches
- Sweating
- Nausea
- Dizziness
- Drowsiness
- Insomnia
- Dry mouth
- Constipation
Up to 10% of affected individuals also suffer from other side effects, such as:
- Sexual dysfunction
- Heart rhythm disturbances
- Muscle stiffness
- Severe restlessness
- Loss of sexuality
- Significant vision problems
- Skin disorders
- Consciousness disturbances like hallucinations
Real Cause Investigation with the Help of a Video Course
Instead of risking developing one or more of these side effects, our advice is: Conduct REAL CAUSE INVESTIGATION. This is not as difficult as it may seem. The Institute for Modern Psychotherapy has developed a online therapy specifically for this purpose, guiding you step-by-step to the real causes of an anxiety disorder. It also provides tools that have already helped thousands of people free themselves completely from anxiety and panic without medication. For more information about this online therapy, click HERE.
Troy A.
Tampa, Florida