I managed to get off this evil drug, Effexor, after trying cold turkey and, failing that, a long, long period of gradual reduction. My physician still won't talk to me as he had told me not to come off it. (This is true)
However, a couple of years ago I read Patrick Radden Keefe's Empire of Pain, about Oxycontin so I searched for books about antidepressants, and have just read Irvin Kirch's 'The Emperor's New Drugs' and Peter Breggin's 'The Antidepressant Fact Book'. They both make the point that SSRI's have never tested positively for curing depression, and spend a lot of words explaining how drug testing (in America) works.
So, I was prescribed this drug for depression, and it was not only ineffective, but increasing the dose made not difference at all, except as a very successful placebo (sugar pill).
Unfortunately, I had already read about how much damage I (was it I, or my physician) had done to my brain.