Hello, Darlings! I don't know where else to ask this since where I am it's Friday after office hours and my doctors are gone for the weekend...
Starting yesterday my medication was altered:
Tyroxin upped from 0,9 mg/week to 1,08 mg/week
Venlafaxin (mornings) lessened from 150 mg/day to 75 mg/day
New med added: In the evenings, for sleep, Mirtazapin 15 mg
Earlier, if I've missed all my pills for a day, it has made me feel sick but had no effect on my mood. However, now, after just two days of half a dose of Venlafaxin, and last night the first Mirtazapin, I'm a mental mess. Plus I feel quite dizzy and the entire day I've just wanted to sleep, sleep sleep (the night was fragmentary) and my eyes are having what usually is a migraine aura for me: Black and white "lights" swarming all over my field of vision.
The Finnish side-effect list form Mirtazapine says tiredness is "very general". Anxiety and dizzyness are "general". Aggressiveness is "rare" (I'm also very irritable).
BUT can I really get such bad side-effects after just one tiny pill? Maybe this is just something that would've hit me even without any changes in my meds, just "because"?
Have to do some reading about it, though it's very difficult with this foggy head and swarming vision. I'm SO tired of all of this. And, like the shrink said to me, I'm an "in-between", because no single illness is making me sick enough to be determined disabled, but a combination of several (weird) ones. :-\
Hello Eija,
Well, seems kind of stark to me that you would react so violently after just 1 little pill ? Maybe it's the decrease of the Venlafaxin?
I tried Mirtazapine (Remeron) a couple of years ago. Was great for mood & social interaction. I was so much more sociable on Remeron, I actually enjoyed talking to people 'live'. But I did take a low dose (15 mg), because my dr. said a higher dose (30 - 45 mg) would have a different effect. Remeron was also excellent for sleep & perked my libido up, just a little. ;) But the downside was horrendous weightgain due to getting the munchies (increased appetite). That was the reason I quit this med.
Good luck to you!
BTW, are you aware that depression can be a Sjogren's symptom???
Mirtazapine, my old friend!
I started on the lowest dose in pill form, then halved it. The most unbelievably effective sleep med ever, at that dosage, for me. And yes, I noticed a lift from depression.
I didn't notice a change in my desire to eat. But I started to "swell". Everywhere, including in my ears, hands, feet. So, unfortunately, I had to quit this med also.
I did notice the hangover effect the next day, as well as dizziness during the whole day. That is a normal side effect from Mirtazapine. Those effects faded over a few weeks. But the swelling, I believe was an allergic reaction. I have every side effect from almost every med, and then some.
Good luck with it....perhaps during the weekend the side effects will be more tolerable.
Maria, thank you for your reply.
Yes, I am aware that depression is a Sjs symptom, too. For me it's been recurring, and the first bout - several years before any suspicions about Sjs - led me to dx of hypothyroidism. I've been trying to ask my doctors if my depression could be because of my Sjs instead of any other reason, but they don't seem to be interested in that question. Now, when this last, "unresponsive", episode started, it was in the form of generalised anxiety disorder. It subsided pretty well with Cymbalta, but has now been coming back again, despite the medication.
I've been reading about Mirtazapine today, and I don't like what I read at all. Mainly because of what they say it does to your weight! I'm overweight as it is, I sure don't need any meds to add to it!
They say the sedative effect is better with smaller doses. I was told to take 15 mg, when many only take half of that, or even just a quarter of a pill! Why didn't the stupid (sorry...) shrink tell me to start with less? Of course I should've figured it out myself. But after today I'm not sure I'm brave enough to touch the darn (sorry again) stuff anymore.
My husband has used M for years to be able to sleep. It works well for him. So I asked him today if starting it caused him any nasty side-effects. Yes, it did. Including mood stuff etc. And that stuff took a while, like a couple of WEEKS to subside.
I find it tragicomic that it didn't help my sleep at all, even though that was what I was given it for. Well, I don't believe it will help me because it doesn't take away the pain and pain is the thing that's keeping me awake/waking me up from my sleep.
Now, about 20 hours after taking the one and only pill, I'm starting to be back to myself again. So I'm betting it was the M causing the symptoms, not decreasing the Venlafaxin.
Horrible stuff! I don't think I could survive a couple of weeks feeling like that!
stillinshockwithsjogrens, thanks! Do you remember if it helped you sleep right from the beginning, from the first dose? Because like I wrote, I didn't sleep any better with it last night. However, I know some people only use it as needed and not on a regular basis. I'm not taking another pill today, because I have to be able to drive over 400 km tomorrow. Feeling like I was today that would not happen.
Hi Eija,
Well, maybe it's the interaction of Mirtazapine with the Venlaxin? Maybe you should totally quit the V first, and then try M again? Just a hunch. These meds often have a weird way of acting upon one another.
M helped me sleep pretty quick, first night.
I see a lot of parallels between your symptoms and mine. I also take thyroid meds. A wacky thyroid could also cause anxiety (or depression). Just before I got Sjogren's I was hit by the worst depression and anxiety (generalized) ever. Because of the many side effects of antidepressants, the dr. finally put me on low dose Seroquel. With that I'm pretty much balanced.
Good luck!
Maria indeed, we're about the same age, too. And I too have hemangiomas - three of them, actually, in my liver :(
The doc said specially, that with Venlafaxin at 75 mg there's no harm taking 15 mg of Mirtazapine. But what do they know? ;D I think we're heading towards quitting V totally but he wants to see first what it does to half the dose. I've kept saying ever since I started it that it did nothing to me, one way or the other thus being unnecessary.
As for a wacky thyroid - I do have thyroid antibodies, too. And when my T4 is up where I'd like it to be, my TSH disappears. And that's when the docs want to decrease my Thyroid dosage. However this shrink was the first to say that since I'm doomed to take my thyroid hormones orally, there's no point whipping the TSH up anymore. And so he upped my Thyroxin generously.
Seroquel, wow. A quick search showed scary things about it! Hypotony (suffering from that already), tachycardia (have that), adynamia, sleepiness, GI-symptoms (yep), weight gain (ghhh...), dry mouth (yup), headaches (migraine!), rhinitis. May cause diabetes (I'm high risk for that) and heart trouble. DVT's - had that, too, don't want another one. So that particular med isn't for me, either. But glad you've found something that helps you!
I've tried SO many different meds that I'm starting to feel like a test animal. I'm ready to ditch pretty much all of them, but that could be interpreted as refusing from treatment and cause them to reject my disability application, should we reach that point. :(
In any case, I think I'll message my gp on Monday that no way I'm putting any of that stuff in my mouth anymore, unless they want me to jump off of a bridge!
Wow that's scary stuff you point out about Seroquel...
I'm aware it can cause several nasty things, but I take the lowest dose (50 mg), so maybe that's why I'm still alive ? :o
Yep weight gain. Far worse on some other antidepressants (tried plenty). Dry mouth basically stayed the same. Constipation maybe got a little worse. I decided to trade in the anxiety for some pounds... Can't win them all...
Tried Venlaxine too, did zilch for me.
I know about the TSH going to zero, that's a side effect of my thyroid meds too. My dr. has accepted it, because T4/T3 are nicely within range now. Never found antibodies though.
Must be difficult for you trying to find a suitable medication. I know it's agonizing, especially as usually you have to try them for a minimum of 6 weeks... All the SSRI's sucked the worst.
Good luck!
Maria - low dose, yep. Maybe that's saved our life ;) Seriously, so many meds seem to have horrible side-effects (in the worst case scenarios) it's just plain scary! Sometimes I think it would be best not to read anything about them, but still, I do want to know. And then I must decide do I want to take my chances with the med in question or not.
Venlafaxine didn't help you either? Heh, maybe Sjögren's makes us resistant towards it... SSRI's haven't really been good for me, either. The first anti-dep that actually helped me was Cymbalta - and it isn't a SSRI. So maybe those just aren't for us.
I didn't take another pill of Mirtazapin last night and I've been okay today. Just "normally" lightheaded, foggy and tired ;D . I'm so NOT taking that stuff anymore!