This local mental disorders clinic treats ADD with Effexor exclusively. No dexedrine, nothing else. Just this serototonin-norepeniphrine reuptake inhibitor.

Are any of you familiar with the treatment of ADD with Effexor and if yes can you please elaborate.

Wow, never heard of that, what's the name of the clinic?

Royal Ottawa Hospital, most know it as the ROH.

Well it's a chemical cousin to the newer Cymbalta and is one up on Straterra (which just blocks norepinehprine uptake). At best these meds are considered 2nd line treatment with fairly low success rates.

I've been on Effexor XR a few years back. What a nightmare. Talk about horrific side effects. Nausea (really really bad), dizziness, walking into walls. Happened every time I went up in dose for a few days then subsided OR if I happened to miss a dose. By the end of that day I would start going into withdrawal symptoms mentioned above. Never ever again.

J

This local mental disorders clinic treats ADD with Effexor exclusively. No dexedrine, nothing else. Just this serototonin-norepeniphrine reuptake inhibitor.

Are any of you familiar with the treatment of ADD with Effexor and if yes can you please elaborate.


What's the role of the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre??The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre is a specialized mental health facility for residents of communities across Eastern Ontario. Being a specialized or 'tertiary' centre means that the programs at the new facility on Carling Avenue in Ottawa are aimed at treating people with complex and serious mental illnesses which are often resistant to conventional treatments.



What kinds of treatment programs are available from the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group??On campuses in Ottawa and Brockville, we offer specialized treatment programs including: Mood Disorders, Anxiety Disorders, Schizophrenia, Sleep Disorders, Geriatric Psychiatry, Youth Psychiatry (for those aged 16-18), Substance Abuse & Concurrent Disorders, Integrated Forensics, Community Outreach, General Psychiatry in Transition, as well as Intensive Treatment & Assessment.


So this place doesn't even mention ADHD, and it's for people that are resistant to CONVENTIONAL TREAMTMENTS (the conventionall treatment for ADHD is psychostimulant medicine, not antidepressant drugs), so they don't provide conventional treatment, and they don't talk about ADHD, so they dont' really specialize in it, so this is not a normal place for your average ADHDer (but it's probably a great place for the people that it's designed to treat)

My experiences with Effexor were decidedly negative.

It was about two years ago that I was once again visiting my family doctor with complaints of feeling chronically low on energy, unmotivated, cloudy-headed and unable to concentrate at work, to the point where I was probably only getting about 6 hours worth of work done in a typical 37.5 hour week. Rather than the expected depression/anxiety diagnosis that I'd always been given in the past, he suggested that it might be ADHD. After doing a lot of research, I found that it fit in so many ways and accounted for so much that anxiety or depression couldn't.

Anyway, he started me on Dexedrine but also referred me to a psychiatrist -- which of course takes about six months. By the time I saw the psychiatrist I was feeling pretty low and was desperate for some relief. She did her 15-minute diagnosis by asking me questions on her list of questions that were looking for depression, told me I was depressed and that I had been depressed for a couple of decades and that I'd probably have to be on antidepressants for the rest of my life. Gave me a script for Effexor, and told me to come back in two weeks for a 5-minute appt to check up on how I was responding to the meds.

I stayed on Effexor for about a year and a half, and that was a huge mistake. It had absolutely no effect on my cloudiness or ability to focus on work (areas where the Dexedrine did have an effect). It did stabilize my mood, but at a pretty apathetic level. I didn't have any of those really down, bordering on emotional breakdown days. But I didn't have any really good, motivated, creative passion-driven days either. And it had some serious effects on my sex drive and response -- my wife being on Zoloft with a nearly-dead sex drive made this aspect less of a problem. Also put on a good 30 pounds without any changes to my diet -- I'd been maintaining for a while without being on much of an exercise program, but I think the Effexor threw that equilibrium out. But I got off the Effexor about 3 months ago and I've been on Wellbutrin for a couple of months. I'm definitely a lot better, and much closer to normal. Still have some of the concentration difficulties, but not as bad as when I was just taking the Effexor.

Now I need to get my wife off of the Zoloft that she's been on for two years as the diminished emotional intimacy and some unhealthy relationship dynamics that have resulted from our differences in sexual desire is preoccupying most of my thoughts. When I was on the Effexor I was so apathetic about life in general and just didn't have it in me to try and make some changes. Since getting off of the Effexor and getting on the Wellbutrin I've been able to see things a lot more clearly and objectively and finally break out of only being able to deal with the "now" aspect. We need to address this issue before it does some real damage, and I don't think I could have achieved this level of conviction about it on the emotional blah-ness that was Effexor.

I'm never allowing a doctor to put me on an SSRI or SSRI-like medication again. I'd been on several different SSRIs in the past, and while they've helped with the crippling anxiety that I would often experience, the emotional numbness that I get while on those meds is not worth it. And this last time on Effexor actually made me worse and destroyed any progress that I'd made to that point.

Yes, I've heard of Effexor being used to treat ADD. I am a military veteran and have been seen by the VA. They were the ones to put me on Effexor for my ADD. It works pretty well but I could definitely use a little more umph. They told me that the higher the dosage of Effexor, the more of an effect it has on dopamine levels. Not to mention that while the Effexor works pretty well for ADD, it works even better for depression! Wow! I have not even the slightest trace of depression while on that stuff. Maybe that's why I can concentrate better? Well anyways, Effexor is a good drug and I wish you the best of luck in whatever treatment comes your way.