Dangers Of Mirtazapine (Page 7)

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 have been using this drug for severe and recurrent depression for 10+ years. I ONLY experienced a deep sleepiness for a week or so. Once your body adjust to this medication, it works WONDERS for some people. I have an eating disorder and trouble sleeping also. IT SAVED MY LIFE- Literally. I was dropping weight so fast that I could no longer find bras or clothes to fit. I am 5'8" tall and weigh 100 lbs. I would NOT be here today if not for this LIFE-SAVING drug. However, with ANY medication patients should be monitored and be watchful for ANY changes. These need to be addressed with your physician. Many people dont know that TYLENOL is one of the most dangerous drugs there is, and parents feed it to their children. READ THE LABELS FOLKS and research ANY drug/vaccine PRIOR to giving it to yourself, your child OR your pet.

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I just wanted to weigh in. I have been giving my 15 year old male cat 1/2 of a 7.5mg tablet of Mirtazapine every 3 days as he has had 14 of teeth extractions in less than a month's time due to stomatitis. When he gets a dose, it actually makes him happy & within 10 to 15 minutes he wants to eat (on his own). Before the Mirtazapine, he had a very hard time eating & I had to either finger feed or spoon feed him with a soft-tipped baby spoon. He has been on it since 9/27 and I can't wait to give him another half tab when the time comes as it starts to wear off just before the 3 days are up.

That said, he is a fairly healthy cat for his age otherwise. His blood tests are all good. The only problem he has, other than stomatitis, is that he has inflammatory bowel disease and all his life, has had only 1 functioning kidney (the other one is atrophied).

I wonder of those having trouble with this drug have cats with some other underlying cause (for instance, it says to be careful with it if the cat has liver disease).

It helps when people express their experiences with this drug but that said, it would be even more helpful to also add if their animal, prior to the drug administration, had any other underlying diseases such as liver or kidney problems or whatever, to start with, and what prompted their vet to prescribe the drug.

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I'm another veterinarian who has had wonderful results using this drug. While it's horrible to hear about such bad experiences, any given person animal can have a reaction to routinely used medication on any given day. It doesn't mean that you have a bad vet, quite the contrary, they were trying to find something to help- it just didn't in this case. Many other animals have been greatly helped with this medication, so try not to make a judgement call based on one or two really terrible experiences

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Yeah relax dude. Mirtazapine is probably one of the safest and most effective anti depressents out there. In my opinion its one of the best.

All anti depressents have some degree of risk and usually they'll be a period of a few days to week for the medication to settle in. That period is usually the worst especially if you don't know what's coming and have no support. And what is massively missing from the medical profession is early stage care and warning while someone is taking such medications.

In my case I didn't have any side effects as I was already in very bad place by the time I took it. It helped me get to sleep which I hadn't been able to for literally 3 weeks!!

Its definitely a better medication for people with depression vs SSRIs and it helped me gained weight that I'd lost massively from depression.

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Read
felinecrf.org/
for more information on appetite stimulants. Mirtazapine has gotten the nickname "meowzapine" for making cats pace and howl.
I have a 15 year old cat that is losing her appetite for no discernable reason. Her bloodwork and urinalysis are excellent. Exam showed nothing although we haven't done an ultrasound yet. The vet gave her Mirtazapine Saturday morning and when I got her home she was eating like a horse. She was dozing in her chair all day looking under the weather, but getting up to eat and going back to the chair. A little bit of doziness seemed like an acceptable trade-off for me. But at 2:00am Sunday she began howling with severe V and D coming out both ends at once! Yet she was still trying to eat between bouts! She is at the Emergency vet now. I will pick her up Monday. I don't know what I will find. They said she was stable and eating without incident. I think it worked too well for her. Vet seemed to think she wasn't eating because she felt sick and even though the stimulant made her eat she never stopped feeling sick. If Mitazapine is an anti-emetic, it failed horribly in her case. Why does this always happen in the middle of the night? I wish they could talk :(

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Lol Mirtazapine ain't like LSD or Marijuana. You can get a high off Mirtazapine but that's usually when you're breaking into the medication and trust me it don't last. I had a few highs early on taking it but that were kinda random. Also a high on Mirtazapine isn't like a natural high when you ain't depressed its just you feel better and that's about it. Now as for a real high I did get one off a 5htp and Citalapram combo but the next day woo that was nasty. Mirtazapine takes the edge off extreme mood dips associated with depression and helps with sleep and panic attacks. Its a good medication and one of the best anti depressants that's for sure!!

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My cat, Zenobia, is 3 months shy of turning 19 years old. She has never been sick, ever. A few months ago she began eating less and less, and is now skin and bones. She hasn't stopped eating, but losing any more weight would probably hasten her demise from old age, which seems to be the only thing "wrong" with her. Her vet prescribed mirtazapine 1/4 of a 15 mg tab every other day starting yesterday. Now she is eating great and having no side effects that I can discern. As a psychiatric patient of more than 20 years, formerly very suicidal with depression, bipolar disorder and terrible panic attacks (doing much better after a long and frightening struggle), I have taken a lot of drugs and had side effects and/or was not helped by almost all of them. My Dr. and I after much trial and error finally arrived at what I now take. It was NOT a pleasant experience, but I did not want to die, so I persisted. Prescription drugs work differently in every body, human or animal, because we all have wide genetic variations among us. I weep for anyone who has lost a loved pet or a loved person- there are 2 suicides in my family. Medicine is not an exact science, unfortunately, and I gve this medication to my cat knowing she could have a bad reaction. Since she is so old, I wanted to help her feel better if I could, and luckily for her it is working so far. Doctors just need to be sure that they supply all the information about any drug and work closely with the patient and/or owner concerning side effects and therapeutic gains. It is a process, and I have been very firm when necessary about discontinuing medications because of side effects or because they weren't working. Ask questions, observe, educate youself and make sure you have a doctor who will work with you. I'm alive and no longer suicidal, thanks to just such a doctor. Losing Zenobia is coming, I know, and it will break my heart. After 19 years I will miss her forever. Such is life.

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I agree we have a cat who has been ill for days and isn't eating or moving at all. We took her to the vet and he proscribed one tablet to see if it would give our beloved Princess back her appetite. Within a hour she was eating, not much but something and she hadn't eaten for 4 days. I'm not one for drugs for my animals. But I also know that leaving her the way she was she could risk getting worse things to happen. I understand the love of a pet. As others have said like every human, every animal is going to react differently to a drug. It may not have been the drug that caused the problem it could of been something that was underlying and possibly the vet missed it or it wasn't found yet. You just can not assume it's the drug because you don't know. For use it helped our baby get back to eating. It's a god send.

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We are going thru the same thing right now with our cat prissy! We are scared to death. She's not doing good at all. She is grieving and that's why she started taking it but it's made her more sickly. She is vomiting also! This makes me mad that my vet gave me such crap!

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We are going thru the same thing right now with our cat prissy! We are scared to death. She's not doing good at all. She is grieving and that's why she started taking it but it's made her more sickly. She is vomiting also! This makes me mad that my vet gave me such a dangerous drug for my already 4 lb kitty!

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Ellen, will you double check with your vet on the dose you gave to your cat. Normally you would give 1/2 tablet every 3 days and not 1 tablet at a time as that is an adult human dose. I give my cat 1/2 tablet every 3 days as needed and it has worked wonders with not only his appetite but his mood too. However, his lab tests are wonderful for his age. Again, I would make certain that anyone who gets this medication that they have lab tests done first to see if their cat is a good candidate for it.

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Hi It is interesting to read all the comments on this drug. We have a 15yo RF cat. I tried the Mirtazapine and initially her appetite increased and she put on weight. She however got very vocal and didn't not seem to be herself. We were giving her 1/8 of 15mg daily. After a few days, her appetite began to slowly reduce until we felt the drug was no longer working, other than the side effect of her being seemingly cranky. So we discontinued. We managed to stimulate her appetite again using a vitamin supplement which included Vit B complex. This worked for a few days and then its effect stopped. Went back to the Mirtazapine but no effect other than to make her cranky again.

I am now down to offerring her anything and everything I can think of, and when that fails am syringe feeding her, which she doesn't seem to mind. Actually, licks it before it makes it to her mouth.

Because we love our cats so much, we want to do the best we can for them and we also don't want to lose them, so often will try anything and the vet's understand how desperate we are and they are just trying to help us and our cat.

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Lotsacats, have you tried Cyproheptadine? That is an antihistamine which is also used as an appetite stimulant. The dose I gave my cats, that it worked well on, was 1/2 of a 4mg tablet twice a day as needed.

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Do you know if I need a script of this or if I can buy it over the counter

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I would suggest that the 15 mg is way too high; we were told to give our cat 1/4 of the 15 mg every 4 days. He needs it every 6 days and is doing extremely well. I notice one other posting was giving 1/8th of the 15 mg.

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Lotsacats, you will need a prescription for the Cyproheptadine. If you try it, do let me know if it works. It worked very fast for the two cats I had that needed it. Good luck!

The Mirtazapine worked best for the current cat I have but I don't give that to him unless he really needs it. Please, anyone using this one, do not give a whole tablet. The dose for my cat is 1/ 2 of a 7.5mg tab every 3 days if needed.

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I THOUGHT THIS WAS ABOUT HUMANS AND MEDS, NOT DOGS AND CATS! I CAME ON HERE LOOKING FOR ANY INFO ON MEDS FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION AND FOUND PEOPLE POSTING ABOUT THEIR FELINES OR DOGS!? WHAT THE HELL!!! GO TO A VET FORUM FOR THAT!

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John Holbert, you may be in the wrong forum. This is a human medicine, you are correct on that but veterinarians also prescribe this to stimulate an animal's appetite. The very first post in this forum, from Jennifer, was about her cat. Perhaps you are the one who needs to find the right forum.

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The reason most anti-depressants have a risk factor of causing suicidal tendencies is because they can boost energy levels before they actually begin to do the ‘anti-depressant’ thing so basically you have more energy to do the dumb s*** you were too tired to do before… (like wash a bottle of mogadon down with a bottle of tequila or take a rusty razor blade ‘down the road’- been there, done that) most antidepressants take 6-12 MONTHS to start working properly! But for me every SSRI I was on I found was up for days at a time and major giddy kinda like coke… so I stopped. Well actually I found a doctor though a depression help group who knew what he was talking about (from personal experience) and changed to a more suitable combination of medications

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my cat has hyperthyroid and is too skinny. she also has a bad appetite. prescribed Mirtazapine, but only 1/4 of a 15mg tab. she became overly interested in food, on our table during dinner. it was too big of a dose. now we're giving her 1/8 of a 15 mg every 72 hours and it's working. did you say you gave your cat 15mg? that's waaaay too much! my cat is just under 7 lbs and about 12 yrs old.

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