Reinstatement symptoms

Posted , 3 users are following.

Hi all, I was advised by gp to taper off my 15mg mirt by skipping doses, however after a little over a week of doing this the symptoms were too strong to continue. taking onboard advice from support groups I realise i need to taper much more slowly! for the last couple of days ive reinstated back to my normal 15mg daily and will let that settle before attempting a much slower taper down the line. I have a couple of manageable symptoms but my biggest one I’m struggling with in increased anxiety and feeling permanently on edge! Do you think that this will settle soon? Many Thanks

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2 Replies

  • Posted

    Hi declan,

    As Mirtazapine has a fairly short half-life of 20 to 40 hours, skipping daily doses regularly could bring on discontinuation symptoms - your levels would be going up and down. Better to reduce slowly and wait a bit of time between each dose reduction. I've done this with other meds by cutting them into gradually smaller doses and I usually give it a good 2 weeks between each reduction. Some articles suggest even longer between decreases. Everyone is different. If you were OK on 15 mg before, maybe you need a few more days (or even a week or two) for things to settle back down now that you've increased your dose again. Then start a slow gradual taper. Anxiety can occur both as a start-up symptom, or with dose increases with many antidepressants as well as a discontinuation symptom.

  • Posted

    It should settle down, but only if you take the right steps. You have to confront your fears.

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