Venlafaxine Addiction without a History of Alcohol and Substance Abuse: A Case Report

Venlafaxine addiction without a history of alcohol and substance abuse: a case report In this paper, the aim was to present a patient who had no history of drug or alcohol abuse but was prescribed venlafaxine because of her complaints of headache and increased its dosage by herself on the pretext of a decrease in efficiency. A 35 year-old female patient complaining of headache was prescribed 75 mg/day venlafaxine by a psychiatrist, and the dosage was increased to 225 mg/day by the same doctor, and then the drug dosage was increased to 2100 mg/day by the patient herself. The patient was hospitalized and venlafaxine dosage was gradually decreased and stopped in 10 weeks. This case shows that antidepressant dependence may develop in patients without a history of drug or alcohol abuse.