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Different Brands of Mirtazapine

Posted , 4 users are following.

chloe74988
chloe74988

I've been on Mirtazapine for a year and a half, I had no real side effects when I started it and it's helped me enormously with my mental health.

When I pick up my prescription the tablets are quite often different brands; this hasn't been an issue before but when I started the tablets I was given as part of my latest prescription (which I'd noted wasn't a brand I remembered using before, though I can't be sure) I started to experience digestive discomfort, felt very gassy and needed to go to the toilet more frequently. I do have IBS so I do have little flare ups but this was different to my normal kind of flare up.

I couldn't get to speak with anyone at my GP surgery about swapping the tablets so took one of another brand I had leftover as a spare to see if it made any difference. Unfortunately I took some Immodium at the same time so taking a day off the new tablets wasn't really a very good indication of if it was those causing the problem, but I did have a couple of days of feeling better, thought I'd re start the new tablets to give them a chance and the unpleasant symptoms have returned. I was wondering if anyone else had had any experience of being affected differently by different brands of Mirtazapine? I know a GP is likely to say that they are all the same and it wouldn't make any difference, but I can tell there must be some variation across brands as the last ones I had had a very strong chemical taste, and these are tasteless. I begin to wonder now whether different brands might've had an impact on my otherwise unexplainable IBS flare ups at other times.

Might be entirely unrelated! But I'm kind of hoping it is the change of tablets as it'd offer an explanation.

1 like, 7 replies

7 Replies

  • ricky96815
    ricky96815 chloe74988

    Edited

    Hi Chloe,

    I recently shifted from the generic brand (Mirtazapine EG) to the oral dispersible tablets (Remeron), both 30mg and I noticed that I felt more sleepy. Spoke to my Doc who said that there could be up to a 20% difference from the two brands. I did a little research and it appears to be true.

    It is as if I need to adjust again to the Remeron as I did with the generic med.

    My two cents, ymmv.

    Good luck 😃

    • chloe74988
      chloe74988 ricky96815

      Posted

      Thank you Ricky, I've been doing a bit of research whilst waiting to speak to my GP and have found as you say there can be a difference, I did wonder if I needed to adjust. I've got an appointment today though to see if they can reissue the prescription so I can try to get a different generic brand I've had before, hoping my doctor is as switched on as yours, I fear they may just try to tell me they are all the same!

    • ricky96815
      ricky96815 chloe74988

      Posted

      Hi Chloe,

      I was in the exact same situation as yours, prepared to hear "they're the same, how can it be different?". But surprisingly my Doc told me that there could be a +/- 20% of the active ingredients and I found out that it is allowed by the law.

      My research showed that, if the original formula is established as "1", the competitor's can go from 0.9 to 1.1, which is probably ok for aspirin, not so ok for other molecules.

      Anyway, speak to your physician.

      BTW: I shifted from the generic to Remeron ten days ago and I'm still struggling to adapt to the new drug. Feeling very sleepy/weak/moody until noon.

      YMMV

      Good luck and let the community know 😃

    • chloe74988
      chloe74988 ricky96815

      Edited

      GP just called, I said about there being sometimes being some variation and happily he said 'Yes there can be, you're right' ! Has reissued the prescription.

      Best wishes to you with adapting to the different drug, hope you feel better soon!

    • ricky96815
      ricky96815 chloe74988

      Posted

      😄 glad you solved the mistery!

      Thank you and same for you

      Ciao

  • kenneth55175
    kenneth55175 chloe74988

    Posted

    mirtazapine have different colouring i asked about this colouring indifferent makes they said it should not make any different but i have read about it and it does i was on zispin mirtazapine that was good for me then they stopped making them so put me on a generic tablet which i was told that it was ok but after a while i did not feel to good but i probably got the same answer as your self its not true check them out

  • brenda46418
    brenda46418 chloe74988

    Posted

    I had the same problem, first time they changed the brand I had a sore stomach & felt sick.

    but I was talked down to at the chemist & told basically " don't be silly they are all the same"

    I stood my ground & have been kept on the same brand as usual.

    Companies only have to make sure their tablet contains mirtazapine, but different companies add different ingredients besides.

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