Viibryd Reviews (Page 13)

Going to start it tomorrow. Anyone else taking it, and if so, how do you like it?

Thanks!

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i got on a strict diet with lexapro because of weight gain and in 8 mos i was able to lose 24 lbs and maintained my weight for 16mos. I let the weight loss go to my head and starting eating bad again and exercising routine changed so I am convinced when you are on SSRI's, you need to watch what you eat and you need an exercise routine.

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My psychiatrist prescribed Viibryd in October. She gave me the starter pack and instructed me to take half a pill. I still experienced bouts of diarrhea, insomnia, and anxiety with the half dosage. The first two weeks I could do nothing but lie in bed. I had suicidal thoughts and I had terrible crying spells. I continued to take it because my doctor said it takes over two weeks before you notice improvement. By the end of the third week my depression did improve but I still had nausea, diarrhea and insomnia. Well I made it to 20 mg and my psychiatrist and I felt that I was doing better. I was able to go to work and actually function. Less crying spells. I am gaining weight but I only eat once or twice a day because I'm never hungry. I probably have gained about 15lbs. I also noticed that I had extreme pain on the right side of my back that got gradually worse since October. I never connected this with using Viibryd. I am having recurrent urinary tract infections with chronic back pain. I have severe pain in my right foot. I have had Cat scans, MRI's and a bone scan all negative. I'm like what the hell is going on. Never thinking it's the Viibryd. Now I am having abnormal vaginal bleeding with clotting. My GYN refers me to a hematologist who ran all these different blood tests. Of course they are all negative but the Hematologists states that medications like Viibryd cause abnormal bleeding. At this point I am breaking down the chronic joint pain, the lack of sleep, the UTI's, THE PAIN OMG!!! It's so severe but it comes in episodes. It is debilitating. Pain meds do not even subdue this chronic pain. After reading this forum I attribute all of my problems to using Viibryd. I suspected but I am 100percent sure that Viibryd will kill me unless I stop taking it. I am going cold turkey. Surely the effects of not taking this drug is less than the effects of taking this drug. This has been a nightmare!

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@Quiet Storm:
Wow, those ARE debilitating side effects. It definitely sucks that you cannot take it.
**However**, from reading this board and what I know personally of SSRIs for 19 years, going off "cold turkey" can cause even WORSE problems! I hope you will reconsider and talk with your doctor about how to come off them properly....

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Thanks for your response. I am totally terrified at this point. Viibryd has definitely helped my depression but it has taken away one great problem and created several health problems.

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Quiet Storm, So sad for you. I'll pray that you find some relief from all this and one day it will just be a bad memory. I have small problems compared to yours. What is your psychitrist saying about all of this?
Stay strong and know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I'm sure you have too many who love and need you. Get better!!!

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Thanks Linda. I left a message for my psychiatrist. I do hope I will get answers. This has been a serious battle between dealing with my depression and now the serious side effects of a drug I thought was truly helping me. I really want to thank you all for this forum because it gave me insight that I would not have otherwise had access to. Thank you all for sharing your experiences.,n

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Hi dawnzig,
Did you lower the dosage to 20 yet and has the joint pain gotten any better?

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Yes, Linda, the dose was lowered by my doctor and it's been 8 or 9 days since I've been taking 20 mg.

Sadly, the arm/joint pain hasn't gone away. It still fluctuates with some days being worse than others and some days on both sides.

One thing I learned, though, was that using the arm/s (i.e., exercising them specifically) doesn't help, it makes it worse. More use causes more pain. Sigh.

I'm going to give it at least a month b/c it took longer than that for the pain to appear. If that doesn't work, I'll consult the doc about maybe going to 10mg.

The problem with going down to 20mg is that I feel more teary and emotional. I fear 10mg wouldn't be enough.... BUT if this pain continues the way it is, I most fear that I'll have to find another med altogether. :(

One GOOD thing in all this is that I've actually LOST a few pounds! Finally! Haven't really changed anything either--I'm not very active and my eating's nearly the same (tho I'm trying to add protein to each meal). Other than that, I've actually been craving/eating MORE sweets at night than before, so am not sure how my clothes are looser, lol. :)

It's the first time in YEARS my weight hasn't gone up (or just stayed the same).

In a way, I almost feel like if Vii will help me lose weight, hell, I'll LIVE WITH the pain, lol.

We shall see....

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Not usually a poster but have found this forum really helpful thanks.
Day 5 on Viibryd. On day 1 took the first 10mg tab at 8pm woke at 4am with diarrhea and general stomach upset no other real other stomach issues until now on day 5 with another bout of diarrhea most of the day.Trouble getting to sleep and up around 4am each day
This is my second round of medication for depression after being on Citalopram for 3 years finished 5 years ago. I am bipolar type 2 so am a bit perplexed as to why I have been prescribed another SSRI ?.
Any other BP suffers out there on this one ?

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Hi Willy.

I'm BP II, too.

Sorry to hear you're having some of the stomach issues. Mine didn't start until the 2nd month and still continue intermittently.

I also have some sleep disturbances but it's more with getting to sleep than waking up.

I take mine about an hour after I wake up, but am still not sure when the 'best' time of day is to take it yet...

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dawnzig OMG - I have the tennis elbow thing too! I've been Viibryd free since 2/3/12 but the joint pain hasn't gone away yet. My knees feel about 50% better, but the freakin' hips and elbow are awful. YES, the tennis elbow sucks the most cuz I didn't realize the simplest twist of my arm while lifting a glass of water would kill me! I'm back on Prozac 40 mg with Elavil 150 mg at night; it's not as good as the Viibryd but that joint pain is something I can't live with. I wonder what it does to our joints to make them hurt so bad - of course I've googled "joint pain" and had a bit of fun scaring myself reading about rheumatoid arthritis and all the other things it could be ... except that I am pretty sure it's from the Viibryd, especially now that I've found all of you who feel the same way. Hang in there!

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Hi GeorgiaSuzy~

Yeah, I was equally surprised when I found this board and found out I wasn't crazy (well, not any more than usual, lol) and hadn't somehow 'done' something to injure myself.

I became suspect when typical pain relievers and even therapeutic massage wouldn't help--and then my doc confirmed the side effect.

I'm also disheartened to hear that your pain hasn't gone away even after being completely off Vii--sorry to hear.

My own pain hasn't subsided at all since I went from 40 to 20 mgs, sadly. Some days it's pretty bad--like today, even the slight arm bend to type hurts. :(

However, I've committed to give it at least a month (maybe two) between tapering down to see if it subsides (since it took at least a couple months to start).

Like you, I'm also worried/concerned about what, exactly, this drug is doing to cause the pain. I wonder if it's permanently leaching something and whether it will affect me even more as I get older... think the side effects of all these powerful meds is very frightening indeed!

Btw, how long had you been off P-zac? And have/had you gained weight on it? It had that effect on me but I haven't been on it for over 10 years.

And, thanks for the 'hang in there!' You, too. :)

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Has anyone switched from Effexor XR to Viibryd? I've been totally off the Effexor for 5 days after lowering dosage every 3 days and adding the Viibryd with 3 days left on the Effexor. Just upped from 10 to 20mg today. I'm having reactions to coming off of the Effexor: tingling/itching sensations in hands, legs and feet. Then headache, nausea and hot flashes that sounds like it might be the Viibryd. Haven't worked more than 4 full days in the past 3 weeks between the depression that prompted the change and now these side effects. Does anyone know how long the "discontinuation symptoms" last and if there is anything that can be done to lessen them?

I'm calling my doc in the morning, and hopefully can get in to work for some of the day.

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OMG, Margay, I came off Eff XR and got on Vii, too!

And I experienced all those things you did: the "tingling/itching sensations in hands, legs and feet;" and "headache, nausea and hot flashes"--EXACTLY what I went through! (Including the paralyzing depression/ inability to function.) I thought I was going thru early menopause, lol!

It was worst during the final 3 months of the 8-month process. Man, what a horrific med! I was so sensitive to it that I had dose down by single milligrams by reducing the # of little 'balls' inside the capsules, b/c it made me so sick.... SO glad to finally be off it!

My experience differs from yours, however, in that my doc started me on another med called "lamictal" to counter the depressive symptoms when I was down to the final 'balls' (i.e, 1 every other day for the final week), THEN started me on the Vii starter pack exactly a month later.

However, I still had the residual Eff sickness during that time... so it wouldn't be surprising that yours hasn't subsided yet. I got much better by the time I started Vii, so it took at about a month for me...

What hasn't changed with the Vii alone is the severe mood swings/ irritabiity and extreme teariness that developed coming off Eff--so my doc is still playing w/lamictal dosing for that.

The good news is that Vii has helped tremendously with my overall mood and energy (at least 2/3 of the tiime); I hope it helps for you, too, and that the Eff sickness goes away soon--hang in there! :)

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I hated it. I was on it for two months and was so sick to my stomach and having dry heaves. I got off it and the side affects have been going on over two weeks. No appeitite, tremors, dry heaves. Lost 20 lbs. Stay off it.

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Thanks for the info. The pins and needles sensations seem a little better today, but hard to say because I've had an awful headache, vomiting and fever all day. A year ago I had very similar symtoms; had stopped the Efx on my own for several days. Ended up in the ER with a worst headache ever and it was the flu. Now with the same symptoms and similar situation, it has me second guessing what's what. I need to take my dose of Vii now, but don't want to throw up. Haven't taken anything for the headache with the same worry.

I know I have to come off the Efx at some point and so I'm going to try and push through this weekend. Really can't miss much more work unless my doctor puts me out on med. leave and I'd rather not do that. My mood has lightened some in the past couple of days.

Hope you continue to progress well.

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I am just starting the viibryd also but I wanted to let you know that the horrible headaches and hot flashes are definitely party of the many withdrawal effects of the EFX. Coming off of EFX was the worst year of my life and I wanted to let you know that when people say that you literally have to count the balls to come off of it, it's true.I had to lower my dose by no more than 5 balls a well and I still thought I would die.I want to save you the misery and beg you too go straight to your Dr. and insist at least a months worth of Prozac. It will get rid of the discontinuation effects and you can stop taking it cold turkey whenever you want with no ill effects at all because it has such a long half-life. Please look it up and don't give up on the viibryd yet because it is highly likely that all of your problems are from the EFX. Sorry about my punctuation and capitalization I'm texting this.

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Agree with notdoneyet, coming off EFX was one of the worst periods in my life, too.

"Pushing" oneself to come off it on one's own is a bad idea.

Additionally, my doc had recommended the Proz for my w/d, too (I choose not to b/c I'd had bad experiences on it before so didn't want to add to my EFX misery). She said it does help the withdrawals.

And thanks, notdoneyet, for confirming the whole 'ball' thing, too. I was going down by 3 balls every 3-4 days depending on the reaction, then, when at the 10-ball mark, by 1 every other day. It was brutal!

But the relief I feel now on Vii (& lamictal) is at least 75% better--with relatively few side effects ('cept for joint pain & occasional loose stools).

Keep hangin' in there everyone!

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Thanks Dawnzig and Notdoneyet for the feedback. I'm feeling significantly better today, although I didn't sleep much last night. If the improvements don't continue in a good fashion, I'll ask my doc about the Prozac supplement.

Best to you both.

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Update:

Arm/joint pain still here, even at lowered dose, some days better than others but still very painful.

Am now getting the blurry vision at a distance. Had needed glasses for seeing up close but am distressed at the rapid decline in seeing far.

Wondering if anyone's gone off/lowered Vii and had improvements in any/all of the side effects?

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