[Closed] Postnatal depression and venlafaxine

Jeepers I feel for you.

There is a slight increased risk of suicide with venlafaxine it appears - still low tho. If she really is at risk tho then I think you would be right to question it.

All ssris carry risk. Discuss with the doc would be my recommendation and also get some support yourself. Its hard on you as well.

I felt like shit on that stuff. I felt worse than ever, really low and reclusive. I was on citalopram beforehand which was much better but my body got used to it. I weened down from 60 to 10mg to 5 every other day over the period of 6 weeks then started the venlafaxine as directed. I stuck to it for 2 months but it gradually made me worse, mood swings, nightmares and becoming reclusive, I know others who have been better on it, just my story.

I hope your wife's well, keep supporting her. My family and friends are what eventually got me back on track.

wow.. that sounds really tough and I know from personal experience that it must be incredibly hard work for you..

Mrs yunki suffered with pnd after the birth of our first child.. she also started having very severe panic attacks.. at first I found it quite hard to step in and completely take over but after a while it just became second nature to care for our new baby and my partner too..

She took high doses of citalopram which was counter-productive so she was then changed to high doses of dosulepin which made her drowsy but helped a great deal..
She responded very well to cognitive behavioural therapy but had to quit her job..
this enabled her to start her own business working from home which I believe was the thing that helped most as she had something to focus on [i]at her own pace[/i]..

it's so hard to watch someone you love become a shadow of themselves and my heart goes out to you..
Mrs yunki has been free from depression for over 18 months and it's almost like it never happened now.. it does get easier..

Our second child is due tomorrow and we're crossing fingers and toes that she doesn't suffer too badly this time round..

good luck
my email is in my profile if you need someone to talk to any time

Can't help on the specifics of the drugs but PND made a visit to our household at one point in the not too distant past so have lots of sympathy with your position. Ours was overcome by extreme stubbornness that resulted in the prescription remaining unopened despite the protestations of the GP.

I assume surfmum's getting some counselling / CBT / behavioural therapy too if it's been that bad? If not might be worth leaning on the GP / psychiatrist for some non-medicinal intervention (sorry that's my very out of date and not used since psychology degree talking).

If this is of no help whatsoever then my apologies but best wishes for a positive outcome.

does PND respond well to talking therapies?

Edit - a quick google says yes - in much the same way as any other depression.

In terms of talking therapies, she is on the waiting list for some group therapy (compassionate mind and mindfulness based parenting) but probably not coming through for a few more weeks. The medical professionals have said that severe pnd doesn't really respond to talking therapies, so they want to get her mood etc back on track before putting them in place.
Me and the 6 y.o. have had more counselling than mum has, me through the childrens centre and the bairn through the school nurse!
Although she has had episodes of anxiety and depression on a number of occasions the only times she has ever got close to being this bad has been after babies.
Thanks for all your good vibes. And it's not escaped my notice that it is valentine's day 🙂

TJ in all honesty I can't recall specifically re PND and I'm (way) too out of date these days on current thinking having done different things with my working life that it could have changed.

My recollection is that something non-drug related should be part of the solution for pretty much all kinds of depression /mental illness (and my former who was a clinical psychologist was also of this view from what I recall). Hence I was trying to be a bit vague about exactly what they should be getting as I wasn't sure about what might be put forward.

In our own household where the pills went unused we found talking and understanding how the situation had come about and why the PND seemed to have arisen helped rectify the position.

EDIT: Kind of superfluous now. sorry. 😳

I have taken Venlafaxine on two occasions.

The first time for a year or so switching from Mirtazapine. In lay non medical terms these two ADs are regarded as the two "most powerful antidepressants" and are generally only used as 2nd and 3rd line treatments, a sort of if these don't lift the mood then nothing will approach.

IIRC all ADs come with the warning that they may increase the risk of suicide in the first few weeks of treatment, whether Venlafaxine is any worse than others I don't know.

Venlafaxine worked a little too well for me and triggered mania (technically hypo-mania) which although pleasurable at the time had some fairly negative results (mega spending sprees) and I lost a lot of friends with my erratic perhaps selfish behavior.

I never really got on with it, I couldn't sleep well if at all for about the first 3 months whilst taking it, although whether this was down to the Venlafaxine or stopping the Mirtazapine I was never sure. However, after that I slept better than when taking the Mirtazapine, and Mirtazapine is one of the most sedating ADs. So who can tell.

I also had lots of small but annoying side effects, muscle jerks when sleeping, jaw clenching, brain zaps (nothing particularly worrying but just annoying). But the worst thing was I just felt wired all the time, either the dose was too small, or too much and we could never find the right balance. I found it really hard to relax and sit still, could barely watch 30 mins of TV before losing interest, becoming distracted etc.

Venlafaxine has a very bad reputation for discontinuation syndrome and for some people it can be a very difficult drug to stop taking (or so you will read on the internet). On the plus side I had no problems whatsoever, whereas I always felt I struggled coming off Mirtazapine which doesn't have anything like this reputation.

The problem with ADs is that people's experience are so very personal and what works for one person can create a living hell for another.

Both Prozac and Venlafaxine have driven my to the point of suicide, I don't get on with drugs that really hit the Serotonin system. Fine if I am relatively stable, as when I switched from Mirtazapine to Venlafaxine. But the second time I took Venlafaxine I was in crisis and it made me so anxious that I was driven to the brink of suicide again.

I now take Lamotrigine an anti-epileptic drug that is used as a "mood stabiliser" and it really works for me. No side effects (or at least any that are noticeable) and once again I feel normal, calm relaxed and with a healthy range of emotions.

I wish you both very well, if you have a good shrink (ie one you trust) it really helps. I wouldn't read too much into my experiences, as I say, no one can really predict how a particular med with work or affect one individual

Thanks GJP. My other half was also on mirtazirpine for a while but really didn't get on with it. And I've heard the 'last chance saloon' stuff as well for venlafaxine.
It's tough because she was through it after baby no.1 in 9 months, and we're quite a way past that now. Can't be that much longer to go!

Bump for the daytime crowd ...