is better than effexor, primarily because of the difficulty in coming off it, or even moderating the dosage. This drug has one of the worst withdrawal profiles of the available anti-depressants. In fact my psychiatrist says he would use it only as as a last resort (he didn't put me on it, my OB did for hot flashes). As he says, you should be able to reduce a medication without putting the patient into a bed-ridden state (I was like that for 4 days when we reduced the dosage 37.5 mg from 300 mg/day).

From my own experience and from people I know this is not a drug I would recommend. You might what to do a search for side-effects on the web - there's a lot of info out there.

Jay