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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

antihistamine withdrawal?

D

doctordog

Bluelighter
Joined
Feb 13, 2011
Messages
118
I've been taking antihistamines on and off for the past year (doxylamine, cyprohetapdine mainly). Lately, I was taking a low-dose of Mirtazapine (~3-7.5mg) for about 2 weeks. I decided to discontinue antihistamines due to side-effects (weight gain, irritability) and have been experiencing a really bothersome feeling of overstimulation and restlessness (bordering on mild akathisia) for the past 5 days.

Is it possibly some kind of withdrawal?
 
Overstimulation- no
Restlessness- perhaps some but I can't remember it ever being too bad (over a year ago)

I had 10 years of daily diphenhydramine (50mg) use before I switched to 30mg of mirtazapine almost daily for a year. Some people do get withdrawal from mirtazapine and others (myself) don't however I wouldn't think such a low dose for just a couple weeks would cause any.
 
Thanks...

It's really frustrating though -- I can't even sit still long enough to watch TV -- and moreover nothing I have on hand really helps .. I'm very prone to anxiety, but it generally never feels like this. I guess I'll keep trying to ride it out and see what happens.
 
I forgot that I'd been on a low dose of propanolol as well (varying between 20 and 80mg as needed) for about a week while on the Remeron because it initially caused anxiety.

So, I discontinued both at the same time. I reinstated propranolol at 10mg b.i.d. yesterday and it helps mildly, but ugh I hate that drug.

I'm going out of my mind -- I have restless legs, constant bruxism and akathisia .. which I thought were all linked to dopamine?
 
Mirtazapine is the problem here, it is not just an anti-histamine it also have effects on the a2 receptors an antagonist from what I remember and also serotonin receptor antagonist.

My mirtazapine withdrawl was taking 7.5mg for 2 weeks and when I stopped I couldn't sleep, mild nausea and experienced dysphoria. It will pass soon :)
 
MrSpeedyG said:
Mirtazapine is the problem here, it is not just an anti-histamine it also have effects on the a2 receptors an antagonist from what I remember and also serotonin receptor antagonist.

My mirtazapine withdrawl was taking 7.5mg for 2 weeks and when I stopped I couldn't sleep, mild nausea and experienced dysphoria. It will pass soon :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was trying to find out if Mirtazapine antagonizes 5HT receptors at low (<7.5mg) doses, because it would make sense if this was some kind of 5HT rebound sensitivity. Cyproheptadine (5HT2 antagonist with an 8 hour half-life) helped sleep, but as soon as it wore off made the symptoms 1000x worse.

There's not much on Mirtazapine withdrawal at all; it sounds like most people are fine, but I tend to be sensitive to medication in general.
 
doctordog said:
Yeah, I was trying to find out if Mirtazapine antagonizes 5HT receptors at low (<7.5mg) doses, because it would make sense if this was some kind of 5HT rebound sensitivity. Cyproheptadine (5HT2 antagonist with an 8 hour half-life) helped sleep, but as soon as it wore off made the symptoms 1000x worse.

There's not much on Mirtazapine withdrawal at all; it sounds like most people are fine, but I tend to be sensitive to medication in general.
Click to expand...

Do a bit of a search on google "mirtazapine withdrawal" and you will find a fair bit of info about it. It is hit and miss, some people claim to have no withdrawals after comming off from months of use yet some people, like me, experienced withdrawals on a low dose for a very short period of time, strange!

IIRC mirtazapine won't affect anything but the histamine receptors at sub 15mg doses and until doses are above that it is actually sedating where it becomes stimulating in higher doses. Its quite a wierd drug!
 
yeah, but wouldn't the affinities just change at diff. doses, i.e. it might affect other receptors at some small capacity at lower doses?

I've found people complaining about rebound insomnia, nausea etc. yet there's nothing really along the lines of the akathisia I'm experiencing
 
Oh yeah rebound insomnia was deffintly one I experienced and yes the nausea too.

Yeah it somehow enhances something in the noradrenaline system and is an antagonist at the a2 receptor IIRC and obviously sesitivity/rebound would occur when stopping that
 
Bear in mind that mirtazapines withdrawal effect of nausea is not due to it being an anti-histamine rather due to it also being 5HT3 receptor antagonist, so it is also an anti-emetic (anti-nausea).
 
Are these not just rebound effects, i.e. the opposite effect of the drug that is being discontinued? Stop using nasal spray, you get blocked nose. Stop drinking, you get the shakes. Stop taking antihistamines, you get restless and anxious, perhaps?
 
^all withdrawal is basically rebound effects. it's the body attempting to achieve homeostasis.

anything that's psychoactive has the ability to induce some sort of withdrawal.
 
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