What is it that makes this SSRI so much worse in this respect than, say, Prozac?

That's a good question.
But it's sure that Paxil is by far the worse of all SSRI's to withdraw and it causes much more side effects than any other SSRI.
Fortunate are those who are not on Paxil and were put on another SSRI!
I withdrew from Paxil and Effexor. Brain zaps caused by Paxil were much more intense and suicidal ideation was much more unbearable. Violent behavior is ten thousand times more intense.
Paxil is hell.

Hi,
I read about this lady and thought you might want to see what I wrote on my blog about how psych-drugs affected my marriage.

A person goes for help. We feel desperate, and instead of being help, the doctors might as well practice blood letting or kick us.

My husband never did like what the psych drugs did to me. I thought he just wasn't on board with the scientific facts that I had a biochemical imbalance that was probably genetic...Ha..what a crock.

What happened to "First do no harm?"
Read my story at:

http://naturalgal.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/my-anniversary-missing-what-i-had/

Actually, Effexor is supposed to be worse to worse than Paxil to get off of due to its half life being shorter. However, even though Prozac has the longest half life of all antidepressants, even getting off of it can be hellish for some people.

And even though some doctors claim it is safe to cold turkey off of, I developed suicidal ideation when my then psychiatrist did that several years ago.

Currently, I am tapering off of Remeron. While I won't claim it is hellish as Paxil, even tapering slowly has caused several withdrawal symptoms.

Natural Gal, my mother had the same reaction as your former husband when she was alive. And I reacted exactly the way you did.

I sure wish I could sue for what these meds have done to me but I have as much chance of winning as Bush does of becoming a Democrat.

AA

I have been thinking a lot about the behavior Paxil brought out in me. I don't want to blame anything excessively on this drug, but I noticed things about how it effected my marriage, as well. My marriage did have problems, but the thought (and it didn't actually happen,) of cheating on my husband never occurred to me until I started Paxil. I became more and more flirtatious with other men until it seemed like I was going to have an affair, and the guilt made me determined to get a divorce. Some people think cheating is okay. Guess what, for me it's not. It's definitely in the category of "against my moral code." I DID take responsbility for it, too, by getting separated from my husband. This, in spite of the fact that I have so much financial stress that it was a large contributing factor to my psychiatric hospitalization 3 years ago.

Actually Effexor has been 1243534x worse than Paxil for me personally. It probably is the half life or it could be my unique biochemistry.

i hope folks don't think i was being dismissive of effexor withdrawal and problems with that drug. i guess i mostly think of those 8000 adverse events and 850 deaths associated with paxil when i talk about bad. but you guys are right. effexor is plenty bad too.

Effexor is unique amongst SSRI/SNRI in having homicidal ideation listed by it's maker Wyeth as a side effect

see Effexor XR side effects (Venlafaxine Hydrochloride) and drug ...Approximately 11% of the 357 patients who received Effexor XR. ..... Guillain-Barre Syndrome, homicidal ideation, hyperchlorhydria, hypokinesia, hysteria, ...
www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/venlafax_ad.htm - 116k

Sara XXX

Well, Personally after ingesting the horrible poison Paxil for almost 4 years myself, I believe it is intolerable to the human body, and the chemical paroxetine is completely poisonous to our system. I think all of the SSRI's are as bad as each other, Paxil was one of the most widely prescribed and also indicated and pushed for many conditions other than depression (GAD, PND, OCD etc). Possibly this is why so many seem to have been damaged and there has been so much media attention to it?

(I'm just waiting for that creep Saraxxx to jump in and hijack this thread!) lol

Why is it not possible to start a class action suite against Wyeth for Effexor or Paxil?