Tapering off Mirtazapine

[FloridaGirl90]

Hi - I have been taking Mirtazapine 15mg for about 4 years now for insomnia. It has been great for my sleep despite some minor blips but I would like to taper off this medication as I have put over a stone on in weight and despite exercising every day cannot seem to shift it.
Would this sound a reasonable way to taper ...
Alternate for one month 15mg one night then 7.5mg the next
Then the second month 7.5mg every night
Third month 7.5mg one night, then nothing the next night
Then would you suggest trying to split the tablet down into 3.75 mg ??
Thanks in advance

@FloridaGirl90 it’s so hard to know isn’t it? But many of the withdrawal symptoms of these drugs are similar to the symptoms they are supposed to resolve e.g sleeplessness.

Is the 3.75mg a tablet? If so could you even break that in half?

Hi, I have been cutting 15mg pills with a pill cutter

Forgot to take mine tonight, was questioning myself and thought on balance I must have taken it. Nope, I’m suddenly very awake 😂🤦🏻‍♀️

@FloridaGirl90 @rainbowninja resurrecting this thread to ask how you are getting on? I'm tapering too - down to 3.25 (quarter of a 15mg tablet). Been halving each dose every 3 weeks or so. But I'm feeling so unwell - physically not mentally which is something I suppose. Headache, dizziness, nausea, brain zaps. My psychiatrist says it can't be the mirtazapine withdrawal but I'm not so sure. Seen the GP who has ruled out everything else really. Off to have my ears microsuctioned today as they are full of wax apparently to try and rule out an inner ear infection. I'm so fed up with feeling so rough! Any positive stories of coming off mirtazapine welcome,!.

Interesting, my dog was prescribed this when poorly to increase his appetite as it's a known side effect to make you starving hungry. No wonder you want to taper off it. How old are you? Insomnia is a perimenopause symptom and I found HRT helped massively with mine.

Hi @SameKeyThough well done on getting this far! I would trust yourself if it feels like withdrawal, to have your psychiatrist deny that doesn’t feel terribly helpful? You can always take it a bit slower or stabilise a bit before you do the next drop?

I’m down to 12.5mg now but had to stop reducing it for a while as am also coming off another med and can only do one at a time!

I’m following the hyperbolic method so a 10% reduction every 4 weeks, it means it gets slower towards the end and I’m not sure how you manage the smaller amounts as I’m not quite there yet. Please keep us posted!

I stopped mirtzapine 30mg cold turkey. It took one week to get back to sleeping routine. I didn't suffer from insomnia when I started it though.

I'm about to attempt coming off Mirtazapine which I have taken for the last few years - 45mg daily which is the maximum dose. I still suffer from anxiety and depression, particularly in the early morning as I wake up. I told my GP i'd like to try another anti-depressant and he agreed to switch me to Fluoxetine (Prozac). He has given me very little advise about scaling down the Mirtazapine other than to suggest I go down immediately for 2 weeks to 30mg and then start the Fluoxetine while still carrying on with the Mirtazapine. I'm very unsure about taking both - does anyone here take both drugs at the same time?

@Cornishgirl123 I’ve been on both Sertraline and Mirtazapine for a couple of years and am now tapering them both as it’s not working for me. Sorry, not sure if that helps other than to say yes I have been on both at the same time (Setraline is also an SSRI) so I do know that it happens, unfortunately didn’t work for me though!

Have you been on Prozac before?

Thank you rainbow ninja. That's interesting. I want to wean myself off Mirt as despite being on max dose (45mg) it doesn't seem to help me. I had a spell on fluoxetine about 20 years ago and it definitely helped my mood (though it did cause me restless legs unfortunately). I'm going to give it another go

im coming off mirtazipan .now down to 7,5 after 3weeks not sure how long to wait before i go down again ,felt a bit nausea s so im taking ginger capsules from health shop which are helping