Remeron Discontinue:

[micakb3]

I have been on 15 mg of remeron for a month and want to discontinue taking it. How should I taper? I have read that this drug is hard to come off of? I fear I will have withdrawal- some dr.'s say to just stop and others say slow taper. I am very confused.

[Paxiled]

Don't know about Remeron, but many of these meds make liquid forms for slow tapering.

[micakb3]

Thank you Paxiled for your reply. I have done major research (as persons with GAD often do) and decided to taper. The last 2 nights I took 7.5 and will continue that for a week, but not sure about tapering the next weeks to follow? The 15 mg pills are so tiny to begin with- how do I cut them when it gets down to 1/4 of a tab and so on? I am not about to waste money on a scale. I will probably just wing it when it gets to that point. I hate this- I keep waiting for any type of withdrawal symptom to happen. Do you have any advice on splitting the tabs once I get to the small amounts? Thanks in advance. ;)

[Paxiled]

The internet isn't a bad place to do research if you know what you're looking for; it's a bad place to hunt for what symptoms mean.  You can find good books on how to go off medications and articles on the net that have nothing to do with horror stories or artificially optimistic stories.  In my research and experience, I can tell you that the first doc knows nothing about drugs at all, and this is common; the second is giving you a one size fits all recipe that many psychiatrists use, the every other day scenario.  Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't.  My research indicates the best way is the one that fits you, and to taper off slowly just in case it's bad -- and it might be the easiest thing you ever did.  Remeron isn't one of the worst, by the way.  I'm not comfortable with the very other day formula because why go through withdrawal every other day if you're one of those people who has a bad time?  Why not go down very slowly by the week until you're down to nothing?  The truth is, doctors in general want to do what requires them to spend the least amount of time monitoring you -- they have a lot of patients, and don't want to be called after hours any more than anyone else does.  So you have to make some decisions on your own, and I would do whatever seems the safest and easiest, which is to go down gradually over time depending on how easy or hard it proves to be for you, not for some generalized artificial statistic.

[micakb3]

Thanks for your response. I do not have a psychiatrist. It was prescribed from my GP. I am also on Zoloft. I know one should NOT search the internet for answers because I have read so many negative things about people coming off it. I also had 2 dr.'s on here give 2 different answers. One said to just stop and I will be fine, and the other said to take a dose every other night for a week than every third night for a week- finally just stop. I have tapered off Zoloft before and was fine, but this drug scares me to come off of.

[ILADVOCATE]

   Any medication should be tapered at the specific rate that a person's psychiatrist decides. Your psychiatrist would give you a titration schedule that should be followed. Most likely they would tell you to stop and wait if withdrawal symptoms start to occur or worsen. Also they would work with you if they agree or have recommended that this medication should be discontinued as to what other medication would replace it. You can discuss this more with them and they could make clinically specific decisions as to how to proceed.  Anti-depressants in this class generally have a slow titration rate but you can ask your psychiatrist more about this.