Viibyrd

I am a 45 yr old male. I have been taking Viibryd (40 mg) for over 3 years. As all doctors prescribe it, they give you a "starter pack" that contains low doses to slowly get you up to your actual prescribed strength. In the past, I have tried numerous other medicines such as Prozac (20 mg, 40 mg then up to 80 mg) which caused a lot of muscle aches. Next was Cymbalta (Duloxetine) I think it was 60 mg strength, which caused some sexual side effects.
When my doctor suggested Viibryd because they claimed there were no sexual side effects, I said sure. So, like I stated, I've been on it for 3 years with no muscle aches and no sexual side effects. Don't really remember if I had any type of suicidal thoughts but it was definitely a life improvement for me.

Until.... the last 4 months I began to experience these brain "zaps" or what I might describe as a mini seizure. My wife works in the counseling center for a Junior High School and she tells me about a student who periodically has seizures and said he can feel them "coming on" so he leaves the classroom. Well, I feel the same thing. These mostly happen when I am tired or about to fall asleep in bed. As I begin to feel slightly dizzy and my eyes begin to feel like they are rapidly moving, I have a feeling like it is about to happen and I try to fight it off. Just when I think I've "fought it off" then the feeling of an electrical pulse racing through my head with an extremely loud vibration noise which causes my entire body to jerk for about 1/2 second. No muscle control during these events. It just tightens every muscle in my body as if I was doing a sit-up. When this first happened 4 months ago, I thought it was due to a different medication that I had gone without for a couple days (Gabapentin). Around this same time I had spoken to my doctor and based on the information I provided, he just suggested that I remember to get my prescriptions filled regularly.

It wasn't until I began to have these brain zaps more often that I looked into all of my medications and found that the cause is actually Viibryd. Last night (3/27/19), I had 8 of these occurrences which has now prompted me to schedule an appointment with my doctor for April 2nd.

I take all of my medicine every night at the same time (around 10:00-10:30 pm). I regularly have eaten a snack of some sort shortly before or after prior to getting into bed (around 11:00-11:30 pm). I take the Viibryd at night because of the other intrusive side effect (diarrhea). If I take it in the morning, it affects my work. While taking it at night, there is only 1 instance early morning and I can deal with that.

I hope there is a solution to these. I'll follow-up here after my appointment on 4/2.

Hello. I see I am terribly late to this conversation and maybe too late in fact. I found this as I was trying to research how quickly viibryd dissolves in the stomach. I just want to leave my testimonial that Viibryd gave me back a life that I love. I've not experienced brain shimmer's or negative effects. I've had a major depressive disorder most of my adult life and after trying nearly everything else out there we finally found this. I wish you all the greatest health and success.

Hi, @karenlm, and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. Thanks for your encouraging story of the major depressive disorder you've had for most of your adult life and then after trying many medications, having some success with vilazodone (Viibryd).

What were your symptoms like previous to taking this medication, @karenlm?

My PA-C prescribed Viibryd for me after having a discussion at my physical. She said if Effexor Xr wasn’t working any more, I could try a new med that sounded promising. I few weeks later I called the nurse and left a message. Without talking to me further, she went ahead and prescribed Viibryd and my mail pharmacy filled it and charged my credit $100. They refused to take it back. I have been on Effexor for almost 20 years so I know what it feels like when you are off this med for 3-4 days because you run out and the doc is lazy getting back to you. I have also tried decreasing from 150 to 75 and I was in a total fog, I just sat and stared at my computer at work and cried. My brain could not function! I was dizzy and off balance. I even tried Prozac at the same time which did not help one bit.
I called and left a message. I got a call back stating I am to quit Effexor at once and start the starter pack of Viibryd and with the 21 days of Prozac. Really? I called back again and I tried to explain I cannot do this without having some serious issues and basically getting sick. The nurse said she had never heard of this happening! She put in another message about my concerns and that I need to go off Effexor slowly from past experience but the same reply cane back! Ugh! Why put myself through that hell and risk my job when I already know what is going to happen? I’m supposed to just go ahead and then if I have symptoms to call back....
Been there done that. No I don’t want to suffer and wait for a response. I want to be proactive and know ahead of time. I am not comfortable doing that. I literally cannot function!
I do medical coding so it’s not like I can work like that. Why are Fam Practice doctors and PAs so much in the dark about this? Anyone switch from Effexor to Viibryd after being on it many years? Did you taper or cut cold turkey?

Hi, @smurf - I'd like to invite some of the previous members of this discussion to return to comment on whether they may have tapered off of venlafaxine (Effexor) and gone on vilazodone (Viibryd) -- and if so, how the switch was done -- like @karenlm @kelsousmc @parus @shellminski @littlelulu @ebeth.

I''d also like to tag some others who have mentioned vilazodone (Viibryd) to see if any of them switched to this medication after many years on venlafaxine (Effexor), like @cjspizz @jeanmnyc @susirep @anon40779520 @pixie115 @pinto @barnowl53 @hoagie6.

Is there another GP or psychiatrist you might consult for a second opinion on the process of moving from the venlafaxine (Effexor) to the venlafaxine (Effexor), @smurf?

I was on Effexor XR for many years, but it wasn't effective. I then switched to several other ineffective anti-depressants before ending up on Viibryd, which has worked for me. Any competent professional who has worked with Effexor XR would know you MUST taper off it. @smurf it sounds like some of the people treating you are ignorant and possibly incompetent. Unfortunately, in many places, there's a shortage of quality psychiatric professionals, so we end up with mediocre people treating core functions of our brain. It's not ideal. In part, it means you need to self-advocate—tell them what they should know. For example, to whomever told you she had never heard of side-effects from stopping Effexor cold turkey, suggest she google "Effexor withdrawal" and call you back when she's done reading the 100,000+ results.

Hi! Did you have taper off Effexor first??

Absolutely I did, over several weeks. No competent psychiatric professional would ever take you off Effexor XR cold turkey. None. Period.

I’ll have to do some research and call my insurance member benefits. There is always such a long wait to get into that specialty...

I’m surprised you were able to taper completely in a couple weeks! Did you have any ongoing residual effects i.e., brain zaps or dizziness/nausea?