Venlafacts.org is an online forum for people taking the medication venlafaxine. This includes venlafaxine in either the immediate or extended release (XR) formulation and in either the generic or brand name version. The brand name is Effexor but is also known by other names worldwide. A listing of these names, as well as detailed information about venlafaxine, can be found in the About Venlafaxine section.
The site name (venlafacts) is a combination of terms that defines this site: facts about venlafaxine. The ".org" suggests that these facts come from you—the users (rather than the producers or marketers). The site's purpose can be summarized as follows:
To our knowledge, Venlafacts.org is the only non-commercial, discussion board dedicated to the topic of just one medication (venlafaxine). Venlafacts.org is also unique with its interactive, graphical web-poll, called the plot-poll.
In order to take full advantage of (and contribute best to) this forum, you should currently be in the initial stages of taking venlafaxine. Specifically, for the purpose of using the plot-poll, this means being anywhere between the first or sixteenth week of taking it. Ideally you should be just starting out (i.e. be in the first couple of weeks). If you do not fall in this group of users who are starting out on venlafaxine, you may still register for the site, but should not be using the site's plot-poll. More information about the plot-poll is available in the My Progress section.
Long-term users of venlafaxine
While Venlafacts.org is primarily intended for those who are just starting out with venlafaxine, long-term users of venlafaxine (or those having taken venlafaxine for over 16 weeks) are also welcome to post. Such users are welcome to post in the “Long-term Reports” category, under "Discussions".
Users discontinuing venlafaxine
We have a category called Withdrawal Central for people who are considering withdrawing from venlafaxine. At this time the site is not seeking reports from people that are already in the process of withdrawing from venlafaxine—even though they may have taken it for less than sixteen weeks.
Users starting out on venlafaxine
In particular, we kindly ask that the plot-poll be used ONLY if you are currently in the first several weeks of taking venlafaxine and do not plan to discontinue it at this time. The main reason behind this restriction is that there are different dose-response patterns in people withdrawing from venlafaxine than in those starting out on it. Mixing these in the plot-poll would render our data meaningless. The plot-poll may be extended to accommodate users withdrawing from venlafaxine in the near future but that is not currently the case (2007). The same applies for long-term or prior users of venlafaxine. We plan to add a category to the plot-poll for such reports, but for now, these users are welcome to post in the discussion section.
Venlafacts.org is not affiliated with any organization, commercial or otherwise. The site is run by two moderators, the "venladmins", who have experience with taking venlafaxine themselves, and with researching depression and anxiety disorders. (Brief bios appear in the discussion section.)
Venlafacts.org was designed and developed by collabographics.com, a design consultancy and blog on the topic of information design for online communities.