Mirtazapine dosage

[Lainie1]

I've been on Mirtazapine for well over twleve months now and at first it was really helping. However after a bit of a blip my G.P. said to up the dose to 30mg. This I found was far too sedating and I just couldn't function next day feeling so tired. We agreed to go back to 15mg and see how it went.

I'm not due to go back to G.P. until next month and I'm feeling so low I wondered if I could try to and take one 15mg and half of another 15mg. I know this would mean cutting one table in half and I'm a bit unsure about that.
Has anyone else tried that and has it helped?

[BikerMatt]

Yes no problems doing that. I took 22.5 for a while. I've also taken other dose variations other than the standard 15mg,30mg and 45mg

[Shazamataz]

Hi there,

Are you on the Mirt for anxiety or depression? My understanding is the lowest therapeutic dose for depression is 30 mg. I found it helped my mood but did nothing for the anxiety.

The drowsiness improves over time but maybe this isn't the right med for you? I have found the best result with venlafaxine for both anxiety and the associated depression.

[Lainie1]

I'm on it for anxiety and depression, but I feel the anxiety is what I am struggling with the most now.

[SmilingAlbert]

Sorry to hear of your issues -

Mirt is not in theory an anti-anxiety med. However, trials have shown that it can be useful for this as well as depression. My suspicion is that its anti-anxiety aspect works better at higher doses. Certainly, when I was for a while at 45mg it quickly helped with this aspect. For a non-anxiety drug, it gets reasonable marks for anxiety:

https://www.drugs.com/comments/mirtazapine/for-anxiety.html

(there are inevitably both good and bad stories there, so please be advised)

Re feeling tired, yes certainly this may well be a problem. My personal solution was decent amounts of coffee in the AM (but no later, because of later sleep impact) to keep you going. As with all meds, it can be useful to find what works, and worry about the impacts like this later.

Tiredness is annoying especially if you have a stressful job, family commitments etc. However, I personally prefer this to rampant agitation which is much harder to live with in my view.

Best wishes,

Albert

[Cherryade]

And it is easy to split a 15mg tablet. It should be scored down the middle. If not just cut with a knife and if you are going to continue doing it, ask the pharmacist the next time you put a prescription in, to give the make that is scored. You can then just break them in half.

[Lainie1]

Thank you for all your replies. I have upped the dose to one 10mg + 5mg (splitting one in half).
All started off quite well but things have taken a down turn now unfortunately and I'm not sure if it's down to the increased dose or just me having a bad time.
From sleeping quite well to start with this week I'm having trouble sleeping. I drop off to sleep almost straight away then after and hour, sometimes after only half an hour, I've woken up and although gone back to sleep again keep waking. This continues all night. Needless to say I'm fit for nothing during the day. Thank goodness I'm retired and don't have to go out to work, I don't think I would have been able to.
Seeing my G.P. later this week so will discuss it with him and see what he comes up with, if anything

[Barnabas75]

So you found 30mgs to be more sedating than 15mgs..interesting as most people say the lower doses are more sedating.

[Lainie1]

Hi Greg,
I found that on the 30mg I still kept waking during the night although initially I went to sleep fine. It was really next day that the sedating effect hit me. I was like a zombie for most of the day and when the effects wore off it was time to take the next dose.
At docs tomorrow so going to discuss options with him then.
Will let everyone know how I get on.

[Barnabas75]

Hope the meeting goes well Lainie. Let us know how it goes.

[MyNameIsTerry]

And it is easy to split a 15mg tablet. It should be scored down the middle. If not just cut with a knife and if you are going to continue doing it, ask the pharmacist the next time you put a prescription in, to give the make that is scored. You can then just break them in half.

If it's not scored you need to check the med is homogenised. If it isn't, you are not meant to cut it as the dose isn't equal throughout the pill and it could cause under dosing.

Many meds may have no score line and be homogenised though.