Sertraline to venlafaxine

[milliemoo]

Hi I am currently taking Sertraline and have been for 5 months for GAD, I have to say it is making me worse. Although it did work for my previous bout in 2011 and I had been fine till I stopped taking it I have been reading all the threads on here and am thinking of giving venlafaxine a go, I've got an appointment with psychiatrist on Monday. Firstly has anyone gone from Sertraline to venlafaxine with success without tapering Sertraline, I'm a lucky one who has never suffered withdrawal symptoms from AD's? Has it worked? I know every one is different but what side effects did you get at first? How long before you noticed a difference? Sorry for the long thread xx

[wabbit1]

Hi, I've not been on recently. I stopped sertraline without tapering then went to Venlafaxine a couple of weeks later. That was in January.

I think on the whole it's been effective but it did take about a month to have an affect but in a rather impulsive move last week I decided to stop it cold turkey and I have suffered from the withdrawal. I didn't when I stopped sertraline cold turkey.

After speaking to GP today I started it again this morning.

[Juliette14]

I have taken Sertraline for 6 months, then in December 2014 I changed to venlafaxine, i made the transition in 3 days (something like half dose of each for 3 days), I did not feel a thing, but I feel much better with Venlafaxine, I could see that only after 2 weeks.

[HunniBee]

Hi,

The only thing you need to be aware of is the ability for new AD's to heighten anxiety for a good couple of weeks before settling in.

I've got this due to my increase in my dosage but either Betablockers or Diazepam will sort that out :) for me I have to increase my dose every 6 months or so as I find my body gets immune to the dose I'm on and stops working. But other than that Venaflaxine is very good for GAD :)

HB xx