Dangers Of Mirtazapine (Page 2)

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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REPORT

Being a new vet tech, I accidently gave our hospitalized cat a whole 15 mg tablet of mirtazapine instead of a quarter tab which should of been given every third day. A few hours after he seemed disoriented and was vocalizing a bit. We gave him cyproheptadine to counter act any major side effects. He is doing okay thus far. I will post again tomorrow to update on his condition.

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My alcoholic husband has been prescribed mirtazapine. He is now taking it and drinking. Anyone ever deal with this? I thought my husband was taking illegal drug because one minute he was fine and 10 minute later he was wasted. He has convinced his doctors to prescribe this for insomnia. Alcohol causes insomnia. He is passed out the majority of the time.

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I gave my fifteen year old cat his first dose of Mirtazapine this morning,tand what a day we've had. After drooling and acting sick for a while, he began to cry. He has cried all day. At first I thought his constipation problems might be the cause of his discomfort. But after a successful trip to the litter box I realized there was another problem. It finally dawned on me to look up the side effects of this drug , and that led me to this site. I would never start a new medication for myself without checking it out first, and I'm very mad at myself for not giving my pet the same consideration.
He is quiet at the moment, and I just pray I don't end up at the emergency vet tonight.
Please always check out the side effects of any new medication, and don't start them on the weekend when vet's offices are closed. I have learned a lesson

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Gave my cat 1/4 tablet of Mirtazapine about 3 hours ago because she refuses to eat after experiencing a hit by car like trauma 3 days ago (we don't know what happened, but seems like spinal cord injury after x-rays showed no broken bones or internal damage). She is restless, pretty vocal, agitated, and generally acting like she's on a catnip binge, but she's finally eaten something and hasn't stopped purring for the past 2 hours. I'm keeping my eye out for other symptoms listed but have not seen them yet. My only concern is the restlessness since she needs to be lying still and resting. Right now she's lying on the couch next to me but keeps trying to get up. I was going to sleep in my bed tonight for the first time since her trauma, but after reading this I'm going to sleep on the couch again with her to make sure she's okay

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I am so sorry to hear about the horrible experience you had with your cat on mirtazapine. I am writing to all of those people considering giving it to their cat. Of course, I wouldn't want to try it if I heard that as well. I wonder if the dose was too high?

My cat was diagnosed another appetite stimulant when she stopped eating due to kidney disease, but it didn't work at all. We tried mirtazapine-I had to cut the tablet into an 1/8-sooo tiny. I love this drug! She eats what a normal cat would eat, she meows, plays, and acts like her old self. We give it every 72 hours-you can tell the difference the day we give it-she is like a kitten again, then as it slowly wears off, although she still eats a lot, she isn't as active.

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My 16 yr old cat Casper developed severe anemia suddenly. Blood analysis by specialists show no apparent reason. abdominal and Thoracic x-rays show nothing. we gave hime a blood transfusion yesterday to help him until an abdominal ultrasound can be done as a final screening. the transfusion went very well and he came home looking for food. great news. he was prescribed Martazapine 15mg for the nausea and lack of appetite. I gave hime 1/4 pill and he started Yowling within an hour. He's been yowling since and seems disoriented. His rate of breathing has increased and he just seems uncomfortable. I will speak to my vet shortly to check if anything can be done. Hopefully this drug will not worsen his condition.....will post an update later.

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Well, the effects of Mirtazapine have finally worn off for Casper. Thankfully his condition did not worsen after the initial 24 hours. My vet has very little expereince with this drug and was surprised at the stong adverse effects. There is not much that could be done for Casper except wait for the drug to leave his system. The backup plan was to put him on IV drip to try to flush the drug out if needed.
I would definitely not use this drug again and would urge anyone who does to LIMIT the dose to 1/8 of a 15mg pill......discuss the dosage seriously with your vet !!!!!
Becky T.....it you check this site again I want to say that I am truly sorry for your loss. The experience that you and Abby had was very disturbing. I would urge you to go back to your records to verify the dosage that was prescribed to you. If in fact it was 15mg per dose; this would be an extreme overdose and the vet should be advised. I know that you would want to protect other pets from potential overdose.
Thank you all for posting your comments. Without you, I would not have known what was happening to Casper and might have pursued more serious medical intervention with dire consequences.

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My vet prescribed mirtazapine (at my request) for my 13 y.o. male with CRF. He had pretty much stopped eating and was not interested in food of any kind. He had gone from 20 lbs (he's always been a big boy) to 15.5. I wanted to nip the weight loss in the butt before it got any worse. Two nights ago I gave him 1/8 of a 15mg tablet and within a hour he was chowing down like crazy. He even ate the canned KD which he hates. Yesterday morning he was up and about when I got up asking for more food! It's hard to say if he was more vocal than usual as CRF cats produce excess stomach acid which causes them to howl. He did seem more restless (he was getting up in the middle of the night to go eat more and wanted me to pet him...the drugs makes them more affectionate since it affects the serotonin levels). So far I have not noticed any serious side effects. He was sleepy this morning but I'm going to attribute it to him being up most of the night. I'm going to give him another pill tomorrow (1/8 of 15mg. tablet every 3 days). I will keep a close eye on him and may even reduce the dose to 1/16 of a tablet.

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Update: My 13 y.o. male cat with CRF has now had a few doses of mirtazapine. I've reduced the dose to 1/16 tablet every 3 days...this seems to be ideal for him. His appetite is still good on this dose, it's controlling his stomach acid and he's no longer restless as he was on the higher dose. He's acting like he did before the CRF, playing, picking on his sisters, getting into trouble and chowing down. He's put on a few ounces. He goes to the vet in two weeks for a blood draw. Hopefully his values have improved or not worsened. His quality of life right now is wonderful and I owe much of that to mirtazapine and kitty massages!

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My cat had stopped eating a few weeks ago so I took her to the vet. They could not find anything obviously wrong after blood tests and x-rays. They performed exploratory surgery and took a biopsy of her intestines. She was diagnosed with cancer a few days ago. The vet prescribed Mirtazapine (1/4 of a 15 mg tablet every 3 days). Having not researched its effects, I gave it to her about 2 hours ago. She is now in agony. I remebered that she acted the same way the last time I gave it to her so I decided to do some research. My research led me to this discussion. Having read what you've said about your cats and seeing what it's doing to min, there is NO WAY I'm ever giving it to her again!

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My 12 year old male cat has chronic renal insufficiency. I adopted him as an adult 2 years ago with this condition. He currrently weighs 11.2 lbs down from 12.8 in April. I had his disease stabilized for two years with high quality nutrition and phosphorous binders (Aluminum hydroxide). Within the last month things started progressing rapidly for the worse as far as is Creatine, BUN and more recently his phosphorous. He stopped eating two weeks ago for two days, then, suddenly started again. I thought his kidneys were officially shot and that he was a goner. A few days ago he stopped eating again. I have tried so many things to get him eating naturally that I have been an emotional wreck for the last month trying to keep him comfortable, hydrated, and nourished. I brought him in the vet today and we did blood work to see if his kidney function has regressed even further, and the vet gave him 1/4 of a 15 mg tab of mitrazipine as well as training me how to syringe feed. He has been recieving 100cc of subQ lactated ringers daily for the last month. He was prescribed Azodyl as well but have had difficulty pilling the large capsule and have not been too impressed with the studies on its efficacy. When I took him home today he immediately ate his canned food. He is showing some side effect. He is restless and a little wobbly, but does not seem too uncomfortable. In fact he seems kind of happy. This definitely has stimulated his appetite, but the restlessness has me edgy. His body language is positive and he is receptive to petting which he has not been in a long time. He's grooming more too. If he needs it again in 72 hours as prescribed, I will give a lower dosage to see if it still stimulates his appetite while reducing the euphoria if that is what it is. I'm just not sure. This must be one powerful medication to elicit such a profound effect in such a short amount of time at such a low dosage. Proceed with caution at the lowest dose possible but don't entirely discount it as an appetite stimulant for feline CRF is my opinion at the current moment.

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Would like to follow up my previous entry. After 6-8 hours or so the restlessness and wobbliness settled down and he was in the most content state I had ever seen him in since I had him. He continued eating for a full week after the 1/4 tab dose. It was just this morning, a full 9 days after his first dose that I gave him just a touch less than 1/4 tab. I just broke a little piece off the 1/4 tab. It stimulated his appetite again without the initial strange effects. This medication has had such a profound positive effect on my CRF cat that I tinkered with the idea of keeping him on it regularly for the rest of his life, but decided to just use it on as as needed basis for now. This medication has bought us precious time and alleviated my stress immensely. I was really falling apart trying to get him to eat during his crisis. We will be doing f/u blood work shortly to see how his numbers look. I am particularly concerned with his phosphorous being in the upper 9's and have doubled his Aluminum Hydroxide as per Dr. Nagode's protocol.

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I'm really sorry to hear about your cat. The side effects seem similar to the anti-emetic (anti-vomiting) drug ' Maxalon' used by vets frequently to stop cats vomiting. One of my tom's had an injection of it ad he behaved the same as you describe your cat did after Mirtazapine. The same tomcat of mine has just been prescribed this drug to increase his appetite following bowel cancer surgery and subsequent weight loss. He had the surgery in February 2010. There is no way I would give him Mirzatipine-it's a major tetracyclic anti depressant and extremely powerful. I'm suggesting to the vet that he prescribes a small dose of antihistamine instead, that will increase appetite and is much safer for a small animal.

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Hello again. I must hold up my hands and say I was wrong about Mirtazapine. I said in my last posting that I would not give my 13-year-old cat this medication because it is a major tetracyclic antidepressant. I decided to give him a dose of 1/8th of a tablet every 3 days. The vet said the dose should be ¼ of a tablet every 3 days, but I was Erring on the side of caution. It has worked wonderfully and my cat's appetite is great. Mirtazapine has similar side effects to Maxolon, an anti emetic drug to stop nausea and vomiting in cats. Following the administration of the mirzatapine, my cat started meowing very loudly, became unsettled and was unsteady on his feet. These side effects lasted 2 or 3 hours only, but it's quite distressing to watch. Happily he is eating 3-5 meals a day so the prognosis is better for the long-term outcome following his bowel cancer. He is taking a drug developed in France that is a chemotherapy drug. It's one tablet every two days to prevent the reoccurrence of the tumour. Taking a tablet every two days is better than having to leave him in a vets animal hospital for the usual chemotherapy, which involves a line into a vein in his leg to administer the chemotherapy medication.

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Pete- good luck with your cat. Unfortunately I had to put Bill to sleep yesterday. His uremia was overwhelming him and any further treatment to artificially prop him up would have been cruel. I used the medication in discussion twice since the original post at a slightly lower dose than the 1/4 of a 10mg tab. He WAS eating until the end, but the other positive effects of the med were not achieved again. I kept my promise to him that he would not suffer, and he was deteriorating rapidly due to toxic uremia. I am very sad but feel like I did the right thing.

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I'm a little surprised at some of the dosage instructions some have shared here for using Mirtazipine in cats. My vet first suggested using Mirtazipine after a Diazepam (Valium) compound made him a little too wobbly. The Mirtazipine dosage I was given was 1/4 of a 15mg tab every 4-7 days. Every 3 days seems like too much based on *my* experience, because there is a visible response to (what I assume is) the seratonin levels increasing. My 17 year old year old male cat with CRF (diagnosed at 16) went from 10+ lbs. to 6.5 lbs. in a year. I started him on Mirtazipine just before his 18th birthday. He started gobbling up his food and has put on just over 2 lbs. in 10 months, averaging an ounce per week at times. I've settled on once every 6-7 days for a 1/4 tab, which I feed inside a Greenie's Pill Pocket (half of one is great for the size of 1/4 tab of Mertazipine).

I'm extremely happy with the results, but I know I wouldn't be if it weren't a success. Please don't take my experience as a guarantee that you and your cat will have similar results. I shared so that anyone reading in the future has another reference to dosage. A full tab of Mirtazipine seems like way, way too much.

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Hello MK,
I'm so sorry to hear about Bill, It's a horrible decision to have to make. How old was Bill? My tom is still eating well, but his times for food has changed dramatically. He wakes me at any time in the early hours wanting food. This morning it was 04.20 hrs when he wanted food, yesterday it was 02.30 hrs then another 7 times during the day. He eats small amounts frequently and easily takes in his daily requirement of food. I void giving him the Mirtazapine on the same day as his chemotherapy medication as it results in him being very subdued-two major drugs together isn't a good idea I don't think. I started the Mirtazapine at an Eighth of a 10mg tablet, not a quarter as the vet prescribed and he's doing well.

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Please read the book Diary of a Legal Drug Dealer. I think it will shine some light on why yer cats doctor would do such a thing. Basically they dont really know what long term effects medications have but big pharma pushes the meds and gives out manufactured stats to sell drugs..Please read the book! It made me rethink how my medical treatment will be in the future.

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I have given my 18 year old kitty a few doses for low appetite. She has renal disease and has been continuing to lose weight. She actually stopped eating and so the vet recommended mirtazapine. It does seem to increase her appetite though she is hardly ravenous. I have noticed that she cries after we give it to her, but my cat is very vocal and anxious as it is so it is hard to say whether the medication causes it. I'm just trying to make her as comfortable as I can at the end of her life and so far, I haven't noticed any major side effects. I would say the improvement is minor but it is still an improvement.

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I Have Been Taking Mirtazapine For Approximately 4 Yrs.Since Then I Have Gained 25 Pounds,Extremely Dry Mouth,Cataracts Started 3 Years Ago,I am now 51I am A Diabetic & My Sugar Levels Have Gone From a Steady 6.4 To 7.6.I Take Lipitor For Cholesterol,Where Mirtazapine has Boosted An Increase Of 11- 19% In My Levels Of High Cholesterol.Headaches I Rarely Used To Get Them. I TalkedTo My Shrink & Told er I Want Off Mirtazapine.I Used To Take 60 Mgs.Bt I Started Taking Myself Off Of Mirtazapine,Before she Even Knew,We Have To Wean Myself Off 15 Mgs.Every 3 Weeks. This Drug Is Very Dangerous & As Far As I'm Concerned,This Drug Should Be Pulled Off The Market.I Wish You Luck On Your Poor Kitty,I Lost My Best Freind In The World,My Snoopers,He Passed In April,12 Years Old,I Could Not Control My Emotions In Check For Quite Some Time.I Know Have A 10 Mnth Old & Every Thing Is Starting To Finally Falling In Place.I Would Never Give Any Meds From A Vet Or Any one Else For That Matter That Are Prescibed To A Human,I Am Living Proof To That!!!

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