it is also best known as effexor

products containing  venlafaxine:
venxor, efexor, effexor xr

Patients?

There's lots of excitement about interferons and multiple sclerosis (MS), because these cellular proteins can actually change the course of the disease, instead of just making patients feel better. Unfortunately, both interferon beta-1a and interferon beta-1b have been associated with increased depression in these patients.

A group of researchers from the University of California at San Francisco and the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in California suspected that interferon wasn't actually causing depression. They hypothesized that depressed patients got excited about their new treatment, and showed fewer symptoms of depression around the time they started it. Later, their symptoms returned.

To test this theory, the researchers studied 56 patients with relapsing-remitting MS, beginning two weeks before they started taking interferon beta-1a. In telephone interviews, they used questionnaires to measure depression. They used the questionnaires again the day patients started treatment and then eight weeks later. Forty-seven women and nine men participated. None of them was being treated for depression.

Depression scores two weeks before treatment and eight weeks after treatment were similar and significantly higher than scores on the day treatment began. To test their theory further, the researchers compared patients that were depressed at the first assessment to those who weren't.

Patients who weren't depressed in the first place showed similar scores at all three times. Those who had been depressed had similar scores before treatment and eight weeks after, but significantly lower scores the day treatment began.

These findings suggest that when starting the interferon beta-1a treatment, these patients felt less depressed than usual, but their symptoms returned within a few weeks. The authors, writing in the October 1999 issue of the "Archives of Neurology," note that the medication could still be affecting those already suffering from depression by contributing to their symptoms.

The researchers suggest that doctors must be aware that MS patients may report an increase in depression during the first few months of treatment with interferon beta-1a and may blame this on their medication. Doctors need to find out about patients' history of depression and be prepared to treat it. The authors note that depression in MS patients can be effectively treated with psychotherapy and/or medication.