Interesting link-drug treatment for sleep apnea!

[Lana]

Found this on the net, it's last years news release. Wonder if anyone on this forum is taking this drug?
http://www.uic.edu/depts/mcph/people/radulovacki.html

then click on: UIC News Release

[sharonokc]

The mirtazapine sounds interesting. I have never heard of it. I wonder if it is for central nervous system or obstructive sleep apnea. I wonder how it affects the seratonin levels. I already take effexor which affects seratonin reuptake and dopamine levels.

[Guest]

Appears to be an SSRI.

I personally wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.

Getting off such med's puts people in the ER. It almost drove me to suicide, and I wasn't depressed before taking and haven't been since I stopped.

SSRI's suppress REM and since many apnea's occur in this stage of sleep, it's a no brainer why people's apnea improve.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt ... 8a37f71f8f

[cjp]

I suffer from depression and I have tried just about every antidepressant. One of them was mirtazapine (remeron). I felt so good on that medicine everyone remarked on how happy I was. It ony lasted about a month before the drug started loosing its effect and during that month I started doing quite a bit of shopping. Apparantly that is a side affect so I went off it. At the time I did not know I had moderate sleep apnea. So I cannot say if it works for that.

[SleepyGuy]

My doctor recently put me on a drug for my back called Gabatril. It's also used as anti-convulsive. I found that it greatly reduced the congestion in my nose at night which in turn has really helped my sleep apnea. I wonder if this drug doesn't have a similar effect?

[Liam1965]

Your mileage may vary, but....

I've been on a lot of antidepressants in my life, trying to find one that worked. My pet name for Remeron is "Re- MORON", which you'll understand in a moment.

Two major side effects I got from it. The first was RAVENOUS hunger. In the 4-6 week trial I was on, I gained 20 lbs. (And while I'm slightly overweight, I'm not obese, so 20 lbs is a hell of a lot for me to gain in that short a time).

But second, I started to lose my memory, very badly. I had commented on this quite a lot, and one day I was speaking with a friend of mine, and commented on these two effects I was having, asking for advice on whether I should terminate the trial early.

She interrupted me and said "I know, you told me all of this yesterday". Now, as you can all guess, I didn't remember having told her about any of this, but worse, if you'd asked me to swear in court, I would have said I hadn't spoken with her in over a week. And yet in the conversation, she knew details that were only a day or two old.

So, perhaps the drug works for some people, but I wouldn't touch it to save my life. Literally.

[SleepyGuy]

Wow. It sounds like you were living in real life the situation from the movies Memento and Fifty First Dates. There really is a guy in England who cannot remember anything a few hours after it happens. He had brain damage from a stroke.

It sounds like you definitely needed to get off that drug.