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