Effexor and Post Concussion
 

Hello guys, hope all is well with you

I've started an antidepressant 6 months into my PCS recovery. It's called Effexor, it's an SNRI.

The drug doesn't seem to have any side effects of its own yet, but it seems to trigger concussion symptoms. I get overwhelmed much easier and go down for much longer than usual. It reminds me of the first month after the accident.

Does anybody have any information about this drug and concussions? I assume its the norepinephrine part that's stimulating my brain too much...

Effexor is also a anti anxiety med... i would assume it is the re-uptake that is the issue... I would ask your doctor...

I was put on Zoloft, a SSRI, and I am beginning the weaning process off. I've been on it four almost 4 weeks and I felt like it made the anxiety a bit worse with more jittery feelings. Now I don't know if how I feel is me or the meds. I never dealt with anxiety or depression of this scale until I hit my head.

It shouldn't take much to wean of 4 weeks of an SSRI or SNRI. You were just getting started.

A SSRI increases serotonin. An SNRI increases epinephrine. This is an attempt to push the targeted neurotransmitter across the synapse. Otherwise, it 'reuptakes' before transmitting the chemical message across the synapse.

Ok, so its been 2 months now and I still keep getting sequences of days where I'm crashing hard, but on good days I feel great and get a lot done. Its like I'm on a really slow moving roller coaster.

So it probably isn't the Effexor xr? I'm just overdoing it or something?

On the days where you get a lot done, you may be overdoing it causing the hard crash.