Posted by Jill on September 16, 2002, at 16:53:18
In reply to Re: Jill---Re: General Remeron Questions, posted by LyndaK on September 15, 2002, at 22:53:06
In my experience (I've taken this drug for over 5 years), increasing the Remeron may actually be increasing the anxiety/twitching. I don't think your increased anxiety is necessarily Remeron poop out. In fact, my pdoc mentioned Remeron has less poop out than the SSRIs.
Talk to your doctor about possibly taking LESS for a short time (I take about 1/2 of my dose for about 4 days or so every few months to improve my sleep...then I go back up...and then sleep great again and feel great).
As a side note, don't forgot you and your doctor can be creative with dosing. I was taking 37.5 mg for a while (30mg + 1/2 a 15mg). Another thing to consider is that this drug, although faster to kick in for many than the SSRIs also isn't "automatic"...meaning that if you take a lower dose for a short time it will take a little bit for the norepinephrine (spelling?) to lower a bit. For me it takes about 4-7 days to feel a difference. To save $...with doc's ok...[can you tell I have OCD :)] you can talk about taking a 1/2 dose or other reduced dose on whatever schedule you find works with your body (I hear the pill cutters work well).
At the higher dosages (e.g., 45+ or even 30 for some people), my doc said NE is more prevalent. At low doses (like 15mg) you get more of the histamine effect (more tired, sleepy). It's a funky drug that way. Serotonin is also in there somewhere :). Reducing your dose of Remeron actually makes you more tired...interesting.
This is nice to know, because with this knowledge, I've been able just to slightly tweak my dosage at times and avoid having to take sleeping meds and also have been able to avoid feeling overly anxious (beyond what seems to be normal job/family/life stress). For me, less is more when it comes to medication. Remeron is the only med I use to treat my depression/OCD. My body is very sensitive to change (as I've been told many people with mental health issues are), so I feel so blessed that this medication works so well for me (no headaches, nausea, sleep problems, or anorgasmia...plus I feel really good).
Talk to your doc to see if reducing for a short time to activate more of the histamine effect will help.
Another aside, I have gained some weight on Remeron (although some is due to no longer being 27!). I went from a size 8 to a 10. Not a big deal. I asked my doc if I should try taking 60 mg to reduce a bit of hunger. However, since that would increase my teeth grinding and make sleep more difficult, we decided not to do that. (In Europe, my pdoc said dosages can be as high as 90mg. Weight gain seems very minimal then, but I know that I would be way too wound up and sleepless at that dose.)
Hope this helps. Please talk to your pdoc. Every body is different.
Take care,
Jill
poster:Jill
thread:1924
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020914/msgs/120038.html