Posted by Chazzzer on March 14, 2008, at 23:08:48
In reply to Experiences with Remeron?, posted by CareBear04 on January 13, 2008, at 22:41:05
> Hi everyone! I'm interested in hearing about people's experiences with Remeron. I was started on it last week, but I haven't noticed really any effects from it, good or bad. My dr. told me that the lower the dose, the more sedating it is, so we started with 7.5. To give it a chance to work, I didn't take any other meds for sleep, and I couldn't fall asleep for hours until I finally took some Ambien. I thought maybe it takes a few days to build up and start working, but that hasn't been the case. Contrary to the lower dose-more sedating theory, 15mg has been slightly more effective, but it still takes almost two hours to work. I also heard that lower doses stimulate the appetite more and cause more weight gain, so I was interested to see whether it would do that to me. So far, my appetite hasn't seemed to be effective.
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> Any experiences or suggestions? I'm trying Remeron for sleep and not as an AD, although I definitely am depressed. I guess it was also prescribed with the hope of improving my eating, but I'm kind of ambivalent about that-- I know I need to eat more, but I hate the idea of using drugs to cause weight gain. Any responses would be great! Thanks!
> CBI used Remeron (aka Mirtazapine) 15mg about three years ago for insomnia. Boy, did it work great! It was my first sleep wonder drug, it made me sleep without any side-effects. The problem was that it stopped working about three months in. I told the doctor and she said "yeah, that happens." I didn't sleep well again with no side-effects until a doctor recently prescribed me Seroquel. I'd tried every known sleep medication in the years since, and the only one that worked was Ambien. Unfortunately, I had horrible hangovers from it. I was willing to put up with them though, as otherwise I was only sleeping about two hours a night. I usually only used Ambien about twice a week, just to get a couple of full nights of sleep so I could survive the rest of the week.
The Remeron never caused any weight gain for me, nor has the Seroquel so far (despite it being a common side-effect of both). I'm taking 12.5mg of Seroquel early in the evening, then another 12.5mg around midnight to fall asleep around 2:00 a.m. The doctor didn't tell me to do this, I figured out on my own that the oversleeping in the morning wasn't as bad if I spread out the dose this way. I'm slowly altering the times to be earlier, trying to get more sleep without sleeping through the alarm in the morning. So far, even at only five hours of sleep a night, Seroquel is a godsend. Sorry, I started talking about Remeron and then went on and on about Seroquel. I guess I just can't help talking about my current wonder drug.
From what I remember, there was no ramp-up period for Remeron. If it isn't working at your current dose, try a different one. In your case, maybe 3.25mg? Or maybe 45mg? Everybody's different.
Also, you mentioned that you finally gave up and took Ambien. Do you take Ambien a lot? One of the common side-effects of prolonged use is the inability to sleep when you don't take it...even when you're taking something else that should make you sleep. Ambien is a powerful drug, and you may need to wean yourself off of it while you continue to take the Remeron.
poster:Chazzzer
thread:806302
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080303/msgs/818024.html