I'm guessing you've tried the usual suspects, zopiclone, temazepam etc etc
When my insomnia got so bad I couldn't even function any more, my psychiatrist tried me on a low dose of olanzapine. It did help me. It is also a pig to get off though... There are no easy solutions I'm afraid. CBT did help me too, but I had to really work at it.
Does anyone have personal experience of this problem? A 79-year-old friend with vascular dementia has been prescribed a whole series of atypical antipsychotic drugs over the past eight months, all with varying disastrous results. And yes - I know this is an off-label use of this group but they still get prescribed for dementia sufferers all over the western world.
She's been on mirtazapine 20mg once daily for about five years (with no apparent ill effects) and olanzapine 10 mg once a day for three months. Two months ago she very rapidly - over a few days - developed massive swelling of her left hand, with complete loss of use of the middle, ring and little fingers of that hand. An X-ray was inconclusive, mainly as she couldn't straighten the three affected fingers, and her doctor has been mystified by this ever since. He finally decided it was arthritis but it didn't look much like it to me, given the degree of swelling and deformity, and the speed with which it had come on. Anti-inflammatory drugs have been prescribed, but with minimal effect.
I visit her in her high-security psycho-geriatric unit at least three times a week. Last Tuesday (six days ago) she was still feeding herself perfectly normally with her right hand, once her food had been cut up for her. Three days later, she could no longer hold a spoon, fork or cup. Her right hand isn't swollen but I can clearly see the identical deformity in her last three fingers as in her left hand. All three fingers on both hands are curled up and twisted over each other.
After raising Cain at the home, I've managed to get her an emergency appointment at a rheumatology clinic tomorrow. In preparation for this, I've been doing some research over the weekend (and no, not on Wikipedia) and have discovered peripheral oedema (swelling) is a rare, but known, side-effect of olanzapine. I also found a long paper that had clearly been published in a learned journal on the subject of peripheral oedema with combined mirtazapine and olanzapine use. Unfortunately, it was in Turkish!
Has anyone suffered from this and how quickly did it improve once the olanzapine dosage was reduced? Also, how serious is the rebound psychosis when olanzapine is withdrawn?
She was originally on risperidone, but when that had to be tailed off because it left her with severe Parkinson-like symptoms, it left her way more psychotic than she'd been at the outset, with the result she stabbed another resident in the lovely retirement home she was living in. She's stayed that way ever since, hence the transfer to a grim high-security psychiatric unit, where she'll end her days. She was subsequently put on clozapine for a couple of months, which caused terrible athetotic movements - constant bobbing, weaving movements of head, jaw, tongue, arms and upper trunk - which made her life unbearable. I have to say, however, that when that was gradually withdrawn, I didn't notice any rebound psychosis.
I'm furious with myself for not researching this sooner, as I'm a former nurse, though neuro was my speciality. I'm even more furious with her idiot doctor for prescribing a med that isn't authorised for dementia, then failing to notice she was suffering from a known side-effect. Ditto the nursing staff at the home. When I mentioned this to the head nurse today, she blithely said she'd known all along it was a side-effect of olanzapine - though I suspect she was just covering up her ignorance.
My friend is beside herself, and it breaks my heart to see her like this. She knows there's something wrong, but doesn't understand what it is. She can't feed herself at all now. I tried her with a biscuit this afternoon and she couldn't even hold that. She's already dangerously underweight (BMI 17) and now she's refusing to let the staff feed her, as she's not used to that. I'm the only one who's allowed to feed her, albeit only a few mouthfuls, but I'm 71 myself and can't continue going in twice a day. In the meantime she's screaming and shouting all day and all night in anguish and sheer terror, and attacking everyone who goes near her. She tried to bite my face today.
Sometimes patients who've been on this class of drugs for long periods know much more about them than the professionals, which is why I'm posting here. Is this terrible condition likely to be a result of olanzapine (and possibly mirtazapine)? And can we expect severe rebound psychosis if her doctor tails it off? (Always assuming he even agrees to do that.) Also, does anyone have any experience of other recently-developed anti-psychotics that don't cause appalling side-effects of one kind or another? Though I have to say, from my own nursing experience, that I suspect there's no such animal.
Back to having awful insomnia again. It's 4am and i haven't been able to fall asleep at all yet. Been taking mirtazapine for almost 8 weeks now and it has been great at helping me to fall asleep, but now i have suddenly gone back to this dreadful insomnia, i feel like it's impossible for me to fall asleep. Has this happened to anyone else after a couple of months? I don't know where i can go from here now what else can i do? I don't want to go through the whole thing of changing meds again, i can't go through that again, but being able to sleep was the only thing keeping me sane and now i've got this shi**y insomnia again, it's frustrating after feeling well for a while.
View 8 Repliesare there some of you out there that take a low dose of mirtazapine plus an antidepressant? if so, what are you taking? did you suffer from anxiety going on the med. i am desperately searching for help.
View 22 RepliesCould anyone tell me please, is there any dose of Mirt that does not stimulate the appetite. Cannot fault the AD other than the horrendous weight gain. My head is right on 30mg for a year but my body is wrecked with a layer of fat. (2stone)
I have been on mirtazapine 30 mg for four years now but it has stopped working for me and so I am coming off it. I cut my dose to 22.5mg ten days ago and feel fine. So am planning to reduce to 15mg in a couple of days time if I still feel fine. Has anyone come off mirt after being on it for a long time and not had any severe problems? Am I going too fast or should I be okay to reduce further if I'm feeling okay?
View 47 RepliesI have been on 30mg Mirt for over 3 years. It helped me sleep and all was fine. BUT I have put on 2 stone and cannot lose it. I went to my GP in June and asked how to come off it. He said to halve my dose for 2 weeks and if I felt ok to stop altogether. This I did. It was a disaster. Panic attacks, insomnia and suicidal thoughts. I Went right back on to my original dose and took a good month to stabilise.
In September I decided to try again, slowly. A new GP said that I was obviously unusually sensitive to this drug as she had never known anyone have a problem before.
Since then I have v gradually reduced down a quarter of a tablet every so often. About 4 weeks ago I was down to 7.5mg/day. I then started dropping off the tablets altogether. I am now on 7.5mg 4 nights a week.
I feel terrible. I was ok until the last 4 weeks. I feel shaky, hungover and nauseous all the time. I can't sleep and the nausea makes it worse. I have noticed that 4 days after dropping a dose I get terrible debilitating stomach cramps and a fearsome headache. This lasts for 24 hours and then leaves me with background nausea etc.
I would welcome advice as to whether to just keep on dropping the 7.5mg relatively quickly (every 2 or 3 weeks or so), or to wait until this awful state passes and then drop another and start feeling ill all over again. I just want it over with asap, but have to continue to work full time.
Please could anyone tell me if I reduce my dose gradually from 30 to 15, will I lose some of this excess weight. I have gained 2.5 stone in a year which I am struggling with. Tried to reduce before but now realise I tapered too quickly. I intend to do the 10% plan.
My worry is, what's the point in reducing if this ravenous appetite does not subside.
Could anyone tell me if there is a dose of Mirt (no matter how small) which does not cause weight gain please?
View 3 RepliesCould anyone advise me if reducing Mirt down from 30 mg will have any effect on food craving. 2 stone overweight which seems to be the norm. If I could lose half of it it would help.
I have been on Sertraline 50mg for 6 weeks, I saw my therapist and she asked how I felt, I told her I did not feel any different, she contacted my Dr. and the Dr. upped my dose to 200mg, this has frightened me, a leap from 50mg to 200mg, has anyone had this outcome, and what were the pro's and con's of this sudden higher dose.
View 8 RepliesI recieved super bad feelings when i got under 100% dose of olanzapine and couldn't sleep and up-ed my dose to 10mg (from around 6mg i guess). the feelings came when i was falling asleep.
it came like 3 times, like 70% of my cells were being pressured together.... (i'm describing the super bad feelings) it scared me A LOT when it happened and i am very scared to up my dose again because i think then these super bad feelings might come again...
they came for like 7 seconds these 3 times combined, these 3 times happened in like 1 minute. it would not surprise me if these super bad feelings were Life-threatening but i told my psychiatrist about it and he didn't know what it was but said that it was not Life-threatening.
so now i am trying to quit very slowly so i never have to up my dose again. lowering my dose by 0,625 mg each time.
i was hoping that someone here knows what these super bad feelings were and could shed some light on it. it would help me ALOT if i knew that these super bad feelings were not dangerous.
i'm not 100% certain that these feelings were caused by me uping my Olanzapine dose alot but i think so.
In Ukraine, the dog has bitten me. At the end of treatment, 6 doses of rabies vaccine is recommended in the report. They make 4 dose in Ukraine and I come to my home (Istanbul) and 5. dose is finished. But total five doses of vaccine are made in Turkey. I do not understand why they want to dose 6. I have a healthy body. 6. dose is important? OR optional?
View 2 RepliesMy son has been on this drug and lithium for six months after a manic episode and diagnosis of BP. I do not feel it has helped him at all. In some ways it has caused further problems as he developed cravings for foods with high fat and sugar content, he began to smoke which he hadn't previously, and then progressed to some cannabis. He has no willpower to resist these cravings and has put on loads of weight. He has also lost all spark and been very depressed despite antidepressant medication.
View 2 RepliesI have just started on the 30m Mirtazapine and it's my 3rd night taking them ans i have read up on a lot of different forums that there are patients gaining weight off these? well i would like to know what the odds are of gaining weight because i have always had problems with weight gain, i can never put on any weight, no matter how much i eat, i have a fast metabolism and i am wondering, will the mirtazapine surpass my high metabolism. also in some cases i've heard it slows your metabolism down too.. but it would actually be a benefit for me to gain some extra weight.
View 5 RepliesFor the first time in a very long time, I'm finally in a good enough place to make the step in coming off my Anti-depressant. I've been on Mirtazapine 45mg for the last 4/5 years and before that a string of various of medications.
Despite my anxiety been kind of excessive at the moment, after a discussion with my GP, he was happy to let me begin tapering down the dose. The problem is with my anxiety I feel it mainly physically rather than mentally so it makes me a little oversensitive to any changes that take place in my body.
I guess what I am searching for is some reassurance so I can stop driving myself up the wall, exhausting google search on mirtazapine withdrawal. 6 nights ago I started my first reduction so 45 mg to 30mg. In all honesty it's not been that bad, a few waves of nausea, headaches and random aches and pains. Those I was expecting so don't mind too much. The trouble is that for the last 3 days, I've found myself a little short of breath for most of the day. It's nothing that's outwardly noticeable at the moment, but it's there and is slightly concerning. Has anyone else experienced this when tapering?
I'm kind of freaked out a little because one of my fears that's arisen since the mirtazapine is the that i will develop random allergies and my brain is wondering if I've suddenly developed an allergy to my meds (ridiculous, I know!) The other thing is that the rest of my family has had either viral chest problems lately so maybe I've just picked up that and it's a coincidence? Or it could just be the anxiety.
I'm totally spinning myself in circles at the moment so any wise words are most welcome at this point. If I know it is just withdrawal and nothing that can actually hurt me then I'm fine with whatever effects it throws at me.
3 days ago I decided to stop taking mirtazapine 45 mg but since then I have not had any appetite for any foods at all. Is this a normal symptom.
View 1 RepliesI was initially on(30mg) for 8 weeks for depression and anxiety. And I did start to feel better, although the blurry vision and the derealisation side effects started to make me anxious again. I think the light head was the anxiety not the tablets.
Went back to work and made an appointment with the Doctor to see if there was another antidepressant with no side effects as I didn't think the Mirt was working.
He told me how to gradually come off the Mirtazapine and then to start Those days coming off the Mirtazapine were fine and the 3 days I took nothing I felt great again! Well what an awful reaction I had to the Citalopram ! Heart thumping, sickness, mind racing, pins and needles, total insomnia for 3 days and the anxiety attacks were awful! I actually phoned NHS Direct.
When I spoke to the Doctor , he said that I had a reaction and the tablets obviously didn't agree. In a knowing smile, he said that I should perhaps go back on the Mirt and that I came off them too quickly.
I am now on no medication , but can feel the awful anxiety still there from the Citalopram episode and am wondering if I will slip back to square one again if I don't take anything. The Doctor has given me a prescription for 15mg 1 week and thereafter 30mg. Perhaps the side effects weren't that bad and as the nurse said " only got bothersome because I was feeling better".
So I'm thinking that I will go back to the Mirtazapine and perhaps they aren't that bad!
Does anyone deal with insomnia induced by your anxiety? I have horrible insomnia (can't fall asleep and can't stay asleep). I know anxiety and insomnia go hand in hand, but I'm not certain if my insomnia is a direct result of my anxiety.
What ways do you deal with this? I was recently prescribed sleeping pills by my doctor, but those are even hit or miss as far as helping me sleep. Does anyone have any tried and true remedies that they use or have found to be helpful?
How do you sleep? Is there anything you can take? I've literally had only 2 hours of sleep and am wide awake.
View 5 RepliesI can't sleep!:( anyone else have this problem? I wake up around 3am everyday and I've never been like this before
View 7 Replies