Muscle stiffness and weakness on Mirtazapine

I too think that Mirtazapine has created weakness and stiffness progressively in my body over the past 7 months. I have been taking 15 mg and wanted to know what your dosage was. I asked my psychiatrist about the stiffness and she said I wasn't on a high enough dose for it to cause at problems. Seems like these doctors all deny side effects of their medications. Past several months my anxiety has gotten much worse and I haven't been walking or exercising as much as I know can contribute to the problem and having a lot of anxiety can cause muscle stiffness and weakness at times but I have had worse anxiety than this in my life. Although not as prolonged at this level perhaps close similar but in a different way. Thanks please let me know the dosage. plan to taper and get off of this stuff anyway

Im glad i've come across this thread as ive been hunting for the cause of my muscle weakness and muscular pain. Ive been on 45mg mirtazipine for 6 weeks and 2 weeks ago these symptoms started. My doctor has sent me for a blood test but in the mean time ive been goggling possible causes and similar experiences of this drug. On all the sites ive come across including medical book at work ( i work in a hospital) ive not come across anything that says this drug causes the symptoms ive been experiencing so its a great relief to find people who sound like they to have had the same experience. I am not on any other medication, nor was i before going on this drug. I was in good health apart from my anxiety from PTSD.

I was prescribed by my doctor 15mg per day at night however i'm not one to follow rules and so took the maximum dose of 45mg per day. My mental state at the time wanted this drug to work as quick as possible to sooth the mental distress and knowing this could take weeks to work i decided to up the dose in hope i would experience the effects quicker or at least get some relief. I did ask for diazepam but was given propranolol which i didn't feel really helped.

It was working well and i did experience a significant improvement over the first four weeks however after that point i started to feel acute muscle weakness. I couldnt even get out of bed properly, i had to roll out due to lack of strength. I wasnt to concerned at first however two weeks later and it seriously effecting me to the point i just laid in bed all day as moving took to much effort and hurt is when i decided i needed to contact my doctor. I did research the drug before contacting them and found nothing that described my symptoms. I spoke to medical professionals at work who suggested it may be that im anaemic but again didnt make sense to me as it only came on after taking the drug. I decided to come off the drug and havnt experienced the symptoms since. They went away after 24hours. From my experience only i would say a high dose if not accustom to the drug over a period of time is the cause of these symptoms. I do plan to go back on the drug shortly but at the original dose of 15mg now that im in a better place mentally. I hope this helps anyone who like me is confused by their symptoms and cant find an online explanation however I did take 3x the original stat dose.

Hi.  First night I took 7.5 mg for insomnia I felt the restless legs.  I also noticed some weirdness related to my hands and feet over the month that I took the drug.  Specifically, my left hand felt detached from my body.  I had a hard time typing.  Hand also had slight tremor.  When walking down stairs, my left foot and leg felt weak, like my gait was off.  The drug also gave me this pins and needles feeling, kind of like akathisa.  I am so happy to be off this drug now.  It's been about one week that I've discontinued.  I am still feeling brain zaps/body zaps, hypnic jerks.  After reading some of the terrible withdrawal symptoms from users that have been on the4 drug for many years, I'm so happy I've made the decision to get off this horrible medication.  It helped me for a few weeks and then my sleep started to deteriorate.  It's funny, the drug is technically out of my system by now (based on half life), but I'm still getting the munchies at night.  I'm now looking for an alternative for sleep as I'm starting to wake up early again.

I too had the pins and needles and all over body itching. psychiatrist tonight that I was from the Mirtazapine said the pins and needles were from anxiety. I could deal with the pins and needles and ignore him and fall asleep but the itching drove me crazy. for a while I had to use hydrocortisone virtually on my whole body and then I know it's terrible to use that stuff at that level and then started having to use just aloe vera gel and that Sooth the nerves a little bit. I don't get the whole body itching anymore mostly on my face and then my back. I get it in places where there's no visible sign of any rash redness or . High doses of histamine type drugs cause cognitive dysfunction. I can't remember what I did 2 minutes ago half the time but can remember many things from the past. I ruminate a lot from depression and have racing thoughts of prior events and things in my life goes. like a kaleidoscope in my head constantly. should have taken the advice of a physical therapist and very wise man and gone more natural routes to deal with my anxiety depression several years ago. One was taking Qi Gong. which incorporates exercise and mental discipline and specific exercises and mental visual in association with these exercises. Also meditation involved mindfulness. Exercising more when I was capable of it. Felt the best in my life a little over 20 years ago after I'd gotten physically fit at least muscular wise after weight lifting for about 5 years. Unfortunately didn't do much aerobic or core-strengthening or lower body work so now I have terrible lower back problems and have had them for the past six or seven years. Went through brief stints where I got my lower back Little Bit Stronger core muscles better and suffered little back pain but it wasn't for very long. Therapy is something I should have had 35 40 years ago. Instead I turned to drugs and alcohol. And even after knowing that's not the answer to things turn to the traditional Pharmaceutical medical system we have for treating anxiety and depression which includes these damn antidepressant. There are so many natural ways to combat anxiety and depression. My story is very complicated and Hope I'm not going on too much but there's a lot more I will leave it here for now.

HI what dose are you on ,I am 7.5 can't get up mornings, stiff knees back ,

If you are having appetite issues than I can see why you are taking this drug.  I had trouble eating for a number of months so that was primarily why I was put on the drug.  Also, I was having insomnia.  I will say the drug almost immediately improved my appetite.  I was snacking all the time.  Once I discontinued Mirtazapine, I started experiencing insomnia again.  I am now taking low dose Ambien, which has been helpful.  I don't feel any grogginess on Ambien, unlike Mirtazapine.

Hi, I am presently coming off Mirtazapine 30 mgs to 15 mgs My doc had me drop straight down from 15 to 0 taking 10 Nortryptoline Bi scared that I will have withdrawal symptoms over the next  couple of days.  I have had muscle aches as well and hoping they go away and that I can finally wake up. If I have trouble 😴  I will take some GABA. I took it once as a calming supplement and it made me tired. So maybe that will help with any insomnia. Also have some CBD oil that I can take. Maybe this will help you to sleeep?  Had nasty restless legs as well. Can’t wait to get off this med.  

Hi Kevin, I know exactly how you feel as I'm going through it myself right now. Was told I have anxiety and put on this med to help relieve the symptoms and to help me sleep and I was so desperate at the time I just took it without reading up on it because I knew it would probably make me too nervous to start taking it (which in hindsight I wish I had done now!). I was put up to 30mg a few weeks ago and started noticing some visual disturbances so was told to go back down to 15mg for a week and then come off it. Soon as I went down to 15mg and ever since (for 2 weeks now), I've been getting frequent muscle twitches/vibrations.  Came off them when that started as it scared the hell out of me but I've gone back on them now in the hope that it was withdrawal from coming off too fast and will go away now I'm taking them again. Don't know if its the right thing to do or if I'm making things worse, all I know is I want to get off them as quickly and safely as possible :-(  Like you I feel angry with the doctor who prescribed them and with myself for giving in and taking them. I hope you can get off them without any problems. I wish you luck.

had my own trials with Ambien initially almost 4 years ago didn't help created more anxiety. would wake up after one and a half to two hours with severe anxiety then about a year and 10 months ago try it again and even taking two extended release didn't help because my anxiety was so bad. Try it again a few months later when I was tapering from benzodiazepines and opioids at the same time. My body would just laugh at taking 2 ambiens extended release. There were nights I was so desperate for sleep that I would get a couple hours after taking two and then take two more. I spent the equivalent of couple months of absolutely no sleep between October 2016 and February January 2017 before I went into the hospital. About 4 months ago try taking Ambien again maybe 5 months around 4 in the morning to try to get back to sleep slept an hour.

Robbie I'm also angry with myself as I knew some of the awful potential side effects of this drug. I read up on it several years ago when the doctor wanted me to take an antidepressant unfortunately whenever I attempted to take an antidepressant my anxiety was already through the roof just made everything worse. I had a brief stint on low dose Lexapro that didn't cause any side effects other than sexual and making me yawn all day didn't really feel tired from it just yawned all day. Yawning is your body's reflux I guess usually that it wants more oxygen. I write a pretty detailed post if somebody who did a lot of research on Mirtazapine and listed a lot of the metabolic and potential problems you can have while on it and listed the difficulty getting off of it. his bottom line statement at the end was I wouldn't wish Mirtazapine on my worst enemy. And I knew this going in taking it. I agreed to take it while I was in the hospital just to appease them so I could get the hell out of there. They were tapering me down from a very high dose of clonazepam and I also had anxiety so bad I was barely eating. Shortly after I got home I went down to 15 and was debating on whether going back up or not because my anxiety was getting worse again. I just stayed on 15 because it made me sleep. over the past several years I had used it on and off in the lower dose for sleep between 3 and 3/4 and 7 and 1/2. I meet with my psychiatrist on Tuesday. I'm still in the process of tapering from clonazepam and my anxiety is Extreme right now to the point where I can barely eat to maintain my weight. I get a tight stomach and acid reflux after eating I force my food down after the first few bites other than breakfast. usually. I have a host of other medical issues now my back neck and shoulders are weak and dysfunctional I can barely get in and out of bed and in extreme pain all day long I've had one frozen shoulder for about a year and 10 months and the right one is getting worse and more painful right now I can barely move it keeps me up half the night even with the mirtazapine. It's horrific getting in and out of bed and extremely painful as I have to use more of my back muscles now cuz I can't use my arm to help me push up out of bed so then I keep hurting my back getting in and out of bed. Feel like I'm trapped in hell. Don't know if I can handle tapering the mirtazapine and the clonazepam at the same time right now that psychiatrist put the clonazepam taper on hold. I have been on it for a long time again reluctantly after almost killing myself getting off of it about a year-and-a-half ago I was able to taper down to one and a quarter to milligrams it was also tapering off opioids at the same time and then it up in the hospital.