Anyone familiar with mirtazapine?

Posted by toren123 @toren123, Jul 27 5:29pm

Is anyone very familiar with mirtazapine for sleep or anxiety? I have been taking 3mg lunesta every night as instructed by my sleep neurologist. He thought that I was so concerned about my insomnia that I might need anxiety medication. Especially when I started waking up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep. To my surprise he prescribed mirtazapine. 15mgs, take 1 or 2 pills with lunesta every night. The first night, I took 1 and had blurry vision and felt somnolent and generally lousy all the next day. The GP said cut it in half for 7.5 mgs. I still had the same results. The next 2 nights I took half of the half, 3.75 mgs. Still same results. After 2 days of only lunesta, no mirtazapine, my vision is almost back to normal and I’m feeling somewhat better. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Could this be a problem with the half life of mirtazapine?

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frouke | @frouke | Sep 27 2:34pm

In reply to @sharshy "@frouke I have been put on Mirtazapine for restless legs and it was better than the..." + (show)

@sharshy it’s very curious how drugs work for some people and not for others, I did enjoy the appetite Mirtazapine gave me because I’m very thin and I sure miss it but not the restless legs.. I sympathize with you having this issue, thankfully they have help for this.

raya55 | @raya55 | Sep 27 3:06pm

In reply to @sharshy "@raya55 What did you take instead?" + (show)

I’m taking 10mg of melatonin, magnesium glycinate and L Theanene. These 3 actually do help me sleep

raya55 | @raya55 | Sep 27 3:11pm

In reply to @sharshy "@raya55 . How strong was it and what did you use instead?" + (show)

@sharshy 15mg

raya55 | @raya55 | Oct 11 7:23pm

In reply to @raya55 "I’m taking 10mg of melatonin, magnesium glycinate and L Theanene. These 3 actually do help me..." + (show)

@raya55 as it turns out L Theanine doesn’t agree with me either - very disturbed sleep and sensations of losing my mind

raya55 | @raya55 | Oct 11 7:26pm

This drug was a nightmare for me. Took it for six nights. Caused me to be ravenous and aggressive. Now just taking 10mg of melatonin and magnesium . Sleep is hit and miss… more “miss” lol

projfan | @projfan | Oct 12 8:44am

I know I'm wading into this late in the game, so you've probably worked your issues out already, but mirtazapine is known to cause vision problems, one of which (acute angle-closure glaucoma) is very serious (although rare). I would encourage anyone taking it who starts noticing vision issues to discuss them with their eye doctor.

Also, the half-life is 20-40 hours: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10885584/, so yeah, a daily dosage does accumulate.