Venlafaxine and Serious Withdrawal Symptoms: Warning to Drivers

Venlafaxine and Serious Withdrawal Symptoms: Warning to Drivers

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/506427

extract

As discussed, withdrawal symptoms occur in patients who have received both low and high doses of venlafaxine and result in a discontinuance syndrome with several manifestations, especially severe dizziness and disorientation, that are incompatible with driving a car or using heavy or dangerous machinery. Although standard warnings are given that taking the drug may affect those abilities, and patients are also generally advised not to stop the medication abruptly, severe withdrawal symptoms, such as confusion, impaired coordination, sensory disturbances, vertigo, delirium, strokelike symptoms, and depersonalization, may occur only hours after reduction or cessation and should warrant a specific "warning to drivers." Whenever venlafaxine is not taken at the usual time or in the usual quantity, special caution is warranted. Even when the dosage is being tapered, the physician should instruct the patient to beware of these symptoms, because the recommended tapering period of 2 weeks is not necessarily sufficient. Cases have been documented in which even tapering over a period of 3 months was insufficient.^[16