Dangers Of Mirtazapine (Page 5)

It seems to me that Mirtazapine is a potentially dangerous drug with little information known about it. My veterinarian prescribed this drug in small quantities for my cat as an appetite stimulant, so I began reading articles on the drug and its effects. Although it is supposed to be used as an antidepressant for humans, it has a wide reputation for causing suicidal tendencies in children and young adults. It causes weight gain (the side effect my vet was looking for in my cat's case). It also can cause feelings of depression, and wooziness. I spoke with a nurse who took it and she said the effects of sluggishness and dizziness lasted 2 to 3 days. It can also cause nausea and headaches. It seems to me that these side effects are anything but what a person who is already depressed should be feeling. (suicidal tendencies that they didn't originally have, feeling tired and unwell physically, and weight gain that could cause feelings of insecurity or increased depression) Giving this drug to my cat was the worst thing I ever did. About an hour after administering it to her, she began crying, looking confused, and she could not walk straight. We figured the effects would wear off, but they seemed to worsen. The next day she was holding her head down, walking in circles (trying to walk straight) and she could not focus her eyes. We brought her to the emergency animal hospital, and they called a poison center. Even the poison center had so little information on this drug (especially being prescribed to cats) that they did not know how to counteract the effects. We believe that the drug actually caused a mild stroke in our cat, and the vet said this looked like it might be the case. On top of that, it has a 72 hour half life, so we just had to wait the drug out for her to even feel better. If this drug could cause a mild stroke in my cat, I could only imagine what it could also do to a human. With so little knowledge of the effects, and such long-lasting effects, it seems to me that it is a dangerous and harmful drug for doctors to be prescribing. A few years from now, when it actually is studied more, I bet that it will be taken off the market as another one of those trial drugs that did not work out. Until then, how many people (and animals) will it harm?

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i took my cat to the vet and had the same problem all of you had my cat died after the first dose of this drug began howling like he was in pain but was paralized and couldnt walk .died an hour after arriving home from the anmal hospital if i only would of known .... this drug should be banned ....

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Oh Janet!
I'm so sorry to hear that...
My Simba passed away on 1/20/11 at before 7am within 18 hours after I gave him this medication. This drug should be banned!
I didn't want to get into too details, because it will put me back into depression. All I can say is please someone stop this, I don't know where to file a
complain except here. Just don't blame on yourself like what I did, it almost killed me!

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I have two cats who are siblings (so you think they would have similar body chemistry and reactions to meds) but boy is that a wrong assumption. My male was put on Metrazapine for weight loss. Within minutes he had the symptoms others have described: appeared disoriented, crying and howling, following me, and looking frightened. I followed what another poster noted and immediately got Cyproheptadine from my vet and he was fine.

His sister is on Metrazapine and she has had no reactions, and it has helped with her weight loss.

I am so sorry for everyone who has had challenges with it, but please know that every cat has different reactions. My boy had a horrible reaction that scared me to tears, and my girl is maintaining weight and it's saving her health. Thanks everyone for your helpful comments.

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oops, wrong spelling, meant Mirtazapine...don't know if that matters when people search for articles.

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I just buried my 8 month old female abyssinain kitten. I Live on an island and fleas are a terrible problem. Even though I use drops and try to keep the house rid of fleas, my little girl was driven crazy by them last week. She began to scratch and claw at herself. I bathed her and bombed the house. On saturday, she was jsut miserable; jsut sit and not move, head pointed down. Normally she was so playful and vocal. I took her to the vet. She was spayed almost 4 weeks earlier. He did some blood work, compared the results. He informed me there had been some slight lowering and she was borderline anemic. He said he would give her mitrazapine to stimulate her eating and calm her. He felt she was overruaght from the fleas and scratching, etc. I borught her home and she was never the same again. The pill took affect and she became totally lethargic, unable to stand. just limp. he had told me it was like "cat marijuana" and she would appear doped. It got worse. by the next morning he was completely out of it. hunched over, not moving. I assumed this was the effect of the medication. that evening she woudl only lay flat on the floor. if i stroked her, she would attempt to meow, but was unable. iwas givnig her water thru a straw. which she labored to swallow. i sat with her til midngiht, went to bed expecting her to be better in the mornign or back to the vet. i awoke at 6 am and she was stiff, in the same spot. In retrospect, I think the drug was too much for her. It should not have been given. My vet is well known, loved and respected. I am upset with myself for not questioning and reading more on the drug before I let it be administered. I am sure it had done well in some cases- but reading the literature, it has not been tested on studied on felines. My cat may have had underlying issues, but this i doubt. Please do not let your vet administer this medication to your feline, especially a young one that is just "not feeling well"

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I do animal rescue and have been prescribed and used Mirtazapine as an appetite stimulant (1/4 of a 15mg tab) given every 2 - 3 days to the cats in our program who are sick or otherwise anorexic. I have never had a cat have an issue from the Mirtazapine itself, although it hasn't always worked. We are talking about dozens of cats.

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Worst drug ever. My cat is drug tolerant and has never had a reaction to anything but this drug which was given to her after she had lost some weight and we try to figure out the cause. 30 minutes after she was given it and after a 3 hour exam at an internist where all of her vitals were fine, she went into respiratory distress - wheezing like she had an asthma attack. she was shaking, crying, looking disoriented and uncomfortable. she could not keep her head up and i thought she was having a seizure or a stroke. she was unable to walk without falling over. it is now 5 days later and after a whole weekend in the hospital, even though she is definitely better she is NOT NORMAL. This drug is dangerous. The vets of course denied any connection bt the symptoms and the drug. really? how do you explain that you released her an hour before and she was fine? Don't piss on my leg and tell me it is raining. I looked at her in the oxygen tank and thought - this is all my fault. Stay away from this drug - find another option.

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My cat Tigger is 17-18 years old. In the last month or so, he hasn't been very interested in food and he was throwing up a lot -- sometimes food, sometimes a foamy liquid that would indicate some problems with stomach acid. When he didn't eat hardly anything for 2 days, it was time to take him to the vet.

He was given a subcutaneous injection due to dehydration, and the doctor ordered some blood tests. He was worried it might be chronic kidney failure (my best guess too, but some symptoms didn't fit) or possibly cancer. The blood test showed normal kidney functions and I opted not to get the x-ray for cancer. At the time of his vet visit, the cat was down to less than 8 pounds. He was never heavy, but this was a few pounds under his norm.

I asked the vet about how to get him to eat again and he suggested 1/4 pill of Mirtazapine every 72 hours. I looked it up and found this site... after reading all of these horror stories, I was very concerned about giving him the drug. But he wasn't eating and there wasn't a lot more I could do but watch him starve to death.

I called the vet again and asked if he was sure the drug was safe. He said that other than some drooling, they have not had many issues with it.

I decided to half the dosage and gave my cat 1/8 of a pill instead. He did drool for a few minutes, but I saw no other symptoms other than him being a bit more active than usual. Within an hour of taking the pill, he was gobbling down his food and wanting more. I was happy to see him eating again!

Over the next few days, he continued to have a healthy appetite but I could see that the effects of the pill were wearing down. I gave him his second pill 72 hours after the first (1/8 of a pill again) and his appetite picked up. It has now been about two days after the second dose and he is eating like a little pig and gaining weight slowly. Best of all, he is keeping his food down (for the most part) and his upset stomach seems to be less of an issue.

I would eventually like to ease him off the drug if he continues to eat on his own, but if I have to I will continue to give him the drug. He has suffered no obvious side effects, and I am really amazed by how quickly the Mirtazapine turned things around for him.

I'm very sorry to hear about the complications other cats have had on this drug, but my guess is that there was some other imbalance in their bodies that caused the negative reactions. I wanted to post my story here in case other people find themselves in my situation and have few alternatives. Maybe I was just lucky, but I am very glad that I decided to give him the drug. It really made all the difference and saved him from starving to death.

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Our vet gave us this as appetite stimulant to administer to our 60 lb. Chow Chow, because he has been quite sick and not eating. We are caring for him at home. We just gave him one 15 mg mirazapine pill. A few hours later it worked because, he wanted to eat.
However, he started to strange: barking over and over (which he had not done), and nipping at us whenever we tried to feed him or move his pillow, etc. This is not like him. We hope that the effects go away by tomorrow. Anybody know?

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Just wanted to say my 4 yr old domestic short hair hadn't eaten in three months (I was feeding by syringe down an esophagal tube) until a vet decided to try mirtazapine. In 48 hours he had his appetite back and has been fine for the last 6 years. Certainly a drug of last resort but when desperate it's worth a try!

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This is a very intelligent comment; everyone reacts to drugs differently. People need to understand, but do not, that their experience may not be remotely similar to another person's (or cat's) experience.

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Becky - I want you to know that my cat - who was being treated for anemia - was given mirtazapine as an appetite stim and immediately after she was admitted to the hospital for severe serotonin syndrome her stable anemia got worse and she too needed a blood transfusion. This started a downward spiral and a month later she is dead.

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i have been taking remeron since 2002. i am sorry to hear of all the side effects that people expressed on this board. i would like you to know, if you have not taken this drug, that my best friend also took it. for him it was horrible. he had panic attacks, his blood pressure went through the roof, etc, etc, the withdrawl was horrible. but for me, no side effects. its pretty simple to me, even though this is just a guess. alot of doctors are quick to put everyone on any drug they can. apparently in med school, they do not teach you much. basically i think that if you are given mirtazipine for something that it should not be perscribed for, then your body will disagree with it. like if you give a diabetic anti-biotics to treat their diabetes that wouldnt make sense. mis-diagnosed depression is very common. i am assuming if you give someone remeron to someone who is just a whiny baby with no real chemical imbalance in their brain, the meds will just cause a chemical imbalance in an already balanced brain.

everyone is different, do not take an internet strangers (such as myself) opinion for your medical needs. talk to a real life doctor, with a real office, and a real waiting room, and a rude nursing staff, and a long 2 hour wait after you have been called in to be seen by the doctor.

once you are talking to a real doctor, ask him, do you think i have CLINICAL depression or just in a normal depressive stage. EVERYONE on the planet experienes depression, if you didnt, you wouldnt be human. no one is happy all day every day. no ones life is all rainbows and lolly pops. so you need to make sure that if you have clinical depression, you take the right meds that work for your body. if your depression is caused by something external or is transient, or caused by certain personality disorders (distinguishable from a mood disorder aka chemical imbalance), then you should not be on anti depressants at all. luckily for me, i do not take remeron for depression, i take it for extreme insomnia. no side effects at all, and if there are any, i sleep right through them and the next day i feel fine (i have been on this medication for 9 years so i am used to it)

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If your animal ever experiences an adverse reaction to a medicine, whether it is a human product or a veterinary product, you can report this to the Veterinary medicines directorate. They monitor the safety of drugs used in animals. You can fill in the report on their website at vmd.defra.gov.uk/adversereactionreporting/ If you dont have all the details to complete the form just fill in what you can.

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Last night (Tuesday 28th june 2011) I gave mt cat her first 1/6 of mertazapine at 19.15 hours by 23.00 hours she was in the emergency vetinary hospital. My cat willow was diagnosed with lymphona three weeks ago today and since had a mass removed from her intestines and two sessions of chemotherapy but has no appetite and will not eat by herself, so this drug was prescribed. The vet has warned that it was not vetinary approved but commonly used for cats with cancer. Willow became limp in her body and yowled and yowled and yowled, so i called up the emergency vet they said monior her for and hour.....she quietened down but after about 20 odd minutes the yowling wouldnt stop yet she was still just laying limp in same spot. I took her to the emergency vet and they said she had a bad reaction and was dehydrated, she was dribbling and looked spaced out! They said they would put her on a fluid drip immediately and she would saty over night.
Now next day (wed 29th july 2011) I phoned the vet and spoke to a different one who said she had never seem a cat react so bad to this drug and we would have to look at other options to stimulate her appetite. She wasnt sure if I would be able to take willow home today but said I could go and visit her, she is still on a drip.

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ninawillow - i'm sorry to hear about willow and hope she gets better. my vet said the same thing - they'd never seen a cat have such a bad reaction to this drug. worse, they didn't seem to know such a reaction was possible even though it is listed on the rx insert. i had to tell them - but even so the vet wanted to blame it on something else. (she must have asthma! no - in the 19 years i've had here - no)

i am bothered by the fact that all the vets posting here seem to do the same thing by saying, "well the cat must have had another underlying condition." No sh*t sherlock! that's why the cat isn't eating - an underlying condition.

it is glaringly apparent to me that cats who are in a weakened condition are more susceptible to the side effects of this drug. and vets should use it with caution but clearly they don't.

ninawillow - if willow had such a bad reaction to this drug - do not allow them to try another brand of appetite stim because you will likely only get more of the same. i know, because i saw it with my cat. if she isn't eating at all - consider getting her a feeding tube instead.

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We are all sorry to hear about Willow and hope that she is doing better now. While I have had a good experience with Maggie on Mirtazapine (a CRF kitty who has large cell lymphoma), she had a terrible experience with Metoclopramide (a drug used to control nausea--nausea is often a reason a cat will not eat). I threw the Metoclopramide out when I noticed muscle twitching and possibly more reactions later.

All this drug interaction stuff is difficult, and it is especially difficult with chemo and surgery (as in the case of Willow) that lower the cat's immune system. I want to point out that I am not a vet, but a person who is going through similar things--trying to find the right combination at the right time to make my kitty feel as good as possible.

But each chemo drug causes a reaction, every drug you use has a different effect, and the combination causes upset stomachs (not eating), loss of appetite (not eating), lethargy (not eating), sometimes anemia (lethargy and not eating). It's a roller coaster ride, for sure. But in the case of Willow, hydration (sometimes with a bit of Vitamin B injected SQ) helps a lot, and it will certainly make her feel better. I presume you are also giving her prednisolone, too, (best at regular times), and that has had amazing revival qualities for my cat, too.

Ask your vet always--and if you're unsure, do what you did, and run to the emergency room. The problem with Mirtazipine is that it is a slow release drug (only given every 72 hours, never more often), and once it gets in, it's in and doesn't dissipate quickly. Good luck, and enjoy your time with Willow.

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I have three cats that all stopped eating at the same time. They were all prescribed Mirtazapine. They all had severe reactions to ONE dosage (1/4 tab of 15mg tablet). Within 12 hours, one cat died and the other two were howling, agitated, disoriented, dilated pupils, pacing, and unsteady on their feet. I am beside myself with grief, as one of my beloved kids with fur just died yesterday, and I am now struggling with the adverse reaction in the other two cats. The fact that ALL three of my cats had a severe reaction to this drug after one dosage says to me, that at least anecdotally, this medicine is NOT safe for cats. I wish that I had known that there were such serious side effects to this medicine before it was administered. I truly believe that if I had not given this medicine, my cat would still be alive today.

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Nancy - I am horrified for you. Nothing anyone can say will make you feel better. You were only trying to help your cat. I don't know how you feel about this but consider having a necropsy done - maybe if we can start documenting deaths we can save other cats. I wish I would have done this on my cat but was too distraught to think of it at the time.

For your other 2 cats - I will say a prayer.

Thanks to concerned for the link to the adverse drug reaction site.

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Thanks, Teresa. I am having a necropsy done. I would like to know the cause of death on a 3 year old cat. I am still beside myself with grief, but at the moment the other two seem a bit better. Cautiously optimistic.

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