Remeron worked before with little s/e but now it doesn't. Pls solve enigmatic problem

[offthehook]

Hello everyone. I am new here. I have been coming to this website for fun, reading and learning for years. I've always had an interest in pharmacology but wasn't smart enough for pharmacy school. Anyway, I am currently having an issue with my own medicine and have no where else to turn but here for advice. I had orginally (wrongly) posted this question in the advanced drug section and the moderator closed the post. I am now posting it here in hopes of trying to figure this out. Thanks for reading!


In lieu of the Psychopharmacology staff at a local major university wanting to charge me $450/ hour for a consultation, I have come to bluelight.eu in hopes that there is a amateur pharmacologist, chemist or evil scientist that could help me out.

In 2008 I developed insomnia. This was unfortunate because I am unable to take insomnia medications. The active ingredient in any pharmacologic substance that induces sleep or drowsiness gives me strong unwanted visual side effect. Mainly; snowy vision , sensitivity to light, an overall wavy-distorted vision, trails etc. After months of Insomnia which almost made me drop out of University, I met with a Psychopharmacologist in 2008 who prescribed me 1mg of Remeron in addition to .125mg Klonopin. I would take 6, 15 milligram brand name Remeron pills to a PCAB registered compound pharmacy in NY and they would compound them into 90 1mg tablets. He figured out that at low doses Remeron makes you very drowsy and at 1mg the load on my brain won’t cause excessive visual side effects. This combination, especially the Remeron, worked AMAZING. I call it the remeron paradox (low dose, low side effects, yet high sleep) It helped me sleep good without over doing my visual side effects.
Long story short I was sleeping good and in Dec. 2010 I successfully got off the Remeron and Klonopin (after a month long taper).

Recently back in May 2012 my insomnia came back again and I was forced to go back on the Remeron. BUT THIS TIME IT DID NOT WORK SO WELL. My vision is more affected, it doesn’t seem to work as well and yet it leaves me fatigued in the morning and I get more of a hangover drugged effect the next day. The first batch the compound pharmacy made me , I did not tolerate at all, so I had them make me another batch from the same batch of brand name Remeron and I tolerated it better. Now I’m a third batch and I am not tolerating it well. My vision is affected and I just don’t feel great.

This is extremely weird considering I was successfully on 1mg Brand Remeron from 2008-2010 with very little side effects. I have considered every possible variable and the only differences from 2008-10 and now is that now I am having the Rx made in NY and shipping the compounded Rx to California, and the heat could have affected the first batch during shipping in the summer but the most recent batch was shipped in cooler weather. Also the active, inactive, and sourcing materials in the Remeron seemed to not have changed since 2008?

If you can successfully figure out this situation on why I tolerated the 1MG before but not now I am willing donate $100 USD to the charity of your choice as a gesture of appreciation.

Thank you for your time.

 

[T. Calderone]

Remeron was the first antidepressant I was prescribed back in the '90's. It helped for sleep and in the beginning I had trouble waking up with feeling groggy and just wanting to go back to bed. I think eventually, my brain adjusted to it. After some months, it was not so effective. So my doctor gave me restoril. If it's not working for you anymore, tell your doctor and maybe he can prescribe something else. Wish you luck, from another insomniac.

 

[Serotonin101]

anti depressants and anti psychotics are strange drugs. I've heard of many people having to switch meds because the effects changed for them over time. I'm sure this is what happened to you with mirtazapine. as was suggested, speak to your Dr about this as BL is not a "professional" environment. insomnia is a bitch and I dealt with it by using opiates/opioids for years (not a smart idea). try some sedating antihistamines such as doxyline, diphenhydramine, hydroxizine, promethazine, etc. they can be quite sedating and will not raise many issues when asking for a noncontrolled substance (restoril aka temazepam). there are also the tricyclic and other sedating antidepressants too such trazadone, elavil, etc and antipsychotics like seroquel, etc. I guarantee haldol or thorazine will put you to sleep.

 

[c3nuke]

Hey u pmd me but I cant pm anymore. I wanted to mention that mirtazippine is Supposed to make you feel groggy, sensitive to light etc. Thats how it works so your brain learns to adapt to it and it will make you a calmer person in general. The effects will go away the more you use it and will still help you sleep. Email me at [email protected] cause of the pm limit if you have further questions .

Chris

 

[herbavore]

Why not find a compounding pharmacy in California if you think the heat may be affecting things?

Do you have a doctor here yet? Maybe you should try to get a relationship with a doctor that you feel good about and you can start to go from there.

Also, one last thought. Are you female? If so, are you anywhere near menopause? Estrogen depletion can be the cause of insomnia for many women so if you are female get your hormones checked if you are over 30.

 

[offthehook]

Why not find a compounding pharmacy in California if you think the heat may be affecting things?

Do you have a doctor here yet? Maybe you should try to get a relationship with a doctor that you feel good about and you can start to go from there.

Also, one last thought. Are you female? If so, are you anywhere near menopause? Estrogen depletion can be the cause of insomnia for many women so if you are female get your hormones checked if you are over 30.

Herbavor, going to a compounding pharmacy in CA is my next step. I did find a doctor here but unfortunately he wasn't of much help. His credentials looked good on paper but during the apt he asked me what compounding was when I requested the script. His knowledge of psychopharmacology was very basic. Unfortuneatly the MDs who know what they are doing where I am charge hundreds of dollars per hour. I am a male under 30 but thanks for any and all ideas.


Seratonin101, thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately I've tried a lot of diff substances for sleep. Benedryl is my go to drug when I really need to sleep but unfortunately I cant take it for more then a few nights in a row. Interestingly enough the antihistamines have little effect on my vision, but the stronger ones leave me groggy the next day. The other drugs you mentioned however would be too strong and give me adverse visual side effects effects.

Thank you everyone for any and all input! This will get figured out.

I have tried every natural sleep aid including valerian root, melatonin, kava kava, tryptophan, l-theanine etc. All give me visual side effects. The vision issue might linked to increases in serotonin or another neurotransmitter. The only natural thing I haven't tried and recently read about was mulungu has anyone hasd success on this? Im assuming its similar to kava kava?